
ass„ 



i^iii 



-- -U hi. 



PRESKNTKl) BY 



COLLECTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW JERSEY 



HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



VOL. VII. 



NEWARK, N. J. 

PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY, 

By martin R. DENNIS & CO. 

1872. 



OFFICERS 

OF THE 

NEW JERSEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

ELECTED 1872. 



RAVAUD K. RODGERS, D. D., President. 

HENRY W. GREEN, LL. D., 1st Vice President. 

SAMUEL M. HAINIILL, D. D., 2d Vice President. 

WILLIAM B. KINNEY, 3d Vice President. 

WILLIA]\I A. WHITEHEAD, Corresponding Secretary. 

DAVID A. HAYES, Rkcordixg Secretary. 

ROBERT S. SWORDS, Treasurer. 

SAMUEL H. CONGAR, Librarian. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M. D., 
N. NORRIS HALSTED, 
JOHN HALL, D. D., 
JOHN CLEMENT, 
CHARLES C. HAVEN, 
PETER S. DURYEE, 
SAMUEL ALLISON, 
THEODORE F. RANDOLPH, 
HUGH H. BOWNE. 

COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS. 
WILLIAM A. WHITEHEAD, 
SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M. D., 
JOHN HALL, D. D., 
WILLIAM B. KINNEY 
JOSEPH N. TUTTLE. 



Gift 
The Society 

t r '05 



THE 

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 

OF THE 

PROVINCE AND STATE OF 

NEW JERSEY, 

WITH 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE GOVERNORS 

FROM 1776 TO 1845. 

AND 

REMINISCENCES OF THE BENCH AND BAR, 

DURING MORE TILVN HALF A CENTURY. 



BY 

LUCIUS Q. C. ELxAlER, LL. D. 

LATE ONE OK THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OK NEW JERSEY. 



NEWARK, N. J. 
MARTIN R. DENNIS AND COMPANY. 

1872. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

Martin R. Dennis and Company, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



mvERSiDB, cambridgb: 

STBRBOTTPBD AND PBINTKD BY 

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



PREFACE. 



nnHE Reminiscences contained in this volume were 
commenced at the request of the late Judge 
Field, when president of the New Jersey Histor- 
ical Society, and portions of them were read at 
meetings of the society in 1870. Having thus com- 
menced, it was proposed that I should complete such 
a history of the judiciary of the State as would make 
a proper sequel to the " Provincial Courts of New 
Jersey," prepared by Mr. Field, and published by the 
society in 1849. This I have undertaken; and at his 
suir«-estion I have written with entire freedom, and 
have expressed without reserve my individual opin- 
ions respecting the men and measures introduced, so 
as to give to the best of my ability an authentic his- 
tory of the age in which I have lived, so far as that 
history related to the men who have belonged to the 
bench and bar of New Jersey. Any further notice 
of Judge Field himself has been rendered unneces- 
sary by the extended memoir of him written by Mr. 
Keasbey, and published by the society. 

Having retired from office and from professional 
pursuits, I have had leisure which I thought would 
not be wasted by endeavoring to preserve for those 



iv PREFACE. 

who shall come after us a reliable account of those 
who have preceded us, and finished their labors in 
the same sphere of duty. With only the exceptions 
of Governors Vroom and Haines, who have been in- 
troduced for the sake of making complete biograph- 
ical sketches of the governors since the Revolution, 
who were a part of the judiciary of the State, all the 
individuals commemorated have passed away. All the 
judges of the state courts, who have held office since 
the Revolution, and who are not still living, have been 
noticed with more or less particularity. 

Some of the persons of whom I have written held 
opinions on the political topics of the day in the 
main agreeing with my own ; while others belonged 
to a different party, and differed from me on many 
important subjects. My earnest endeavor has been 
to do equal justice to all. With all personally known 
to me, my relations have been altogether friendly ; 
and I have kept in mind that while holding firmly 
to my own opinions, those difiering from me were 
equally entitled to adhere to theirs, and that it is 
quite possible they were right and I was wrong. My 
hardest task has been to avoid mere eulogy, and to 
give, as far as possible, a correct impression of the 
true character of each individual as he appeared to 
me, of course touching lightly on fliults, of w^hich we 
all have enough, and giving full prominence to what- 
ever seemed to me commendable. 

For the purpose of making more complete the ju- 
dicial history of the State, I have introduced an ac- 



PEEFACE. 



count of the constitution and government of the col- 
ony while it was a province of Great Britain, and a 
history of the constitution formed in 1776. A care- 
ful study of these histories will show us that our 
state and our federal republics, on the excellence of 
which we so justly pride ourselves, are not mushroom 
growths which sprung up in a night, and are there- 
fore liable to perish in a day, but that they have 
been the slow and sure growths of nearly two centu- 
ries of experience, the germs of which are found in 
the sound principles of the common law brought 
with them by our English forefathers. The consti- 
tution of 1776 was defective, in blending the duties 
of the executive and the judiciary; but this defect 
was much relieved, and perhaps quite remedied, by 
the flxct that while it existed the governors were 
necessarily men learned in the law, and thus the 
State commenced its independent career, and for 
years had the benefit of rulers having high qualifi- 
cations for the office. 

I have also added, by way of Appendix, a short 
account of the Titles to Land, as held in New Jer- 
sey, originally prepared for Nixon's Digest, which 
I trust will be found interesting and useful, not 
only to lawyers, but to proprietors generally. 

Bridgeton, January 1, 1872, 



COI^TEIS'TS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAQB 

Constitution and Government of the Province op New 
Jersey 1 

CHAPTER H. 

The State Constitution adopted in 1776, and the Gov- 
ernment UNDER it 21 

CHAPTER m. 

Governors during the War for Independence : William 

Franklin ; William Livingston 50 

CHAPTER IV. 

Governors after the War for Independence : William 

Paterson; Richard Howf,ll 77 

CHAPTER V. 

Governors I have known : Joseph Bloomfield ; Aaron 

Ogden 114 

CHAPTER VI. 

Governors I have icnown : William S. Pennington ; 
Maiilon Dickerson; Isaac H. Williamson; Peter D. 
Vroom 158 

CHAPTER VII. 

Governors I have knoavn : Samuel L. Southard ; Elias 
P. Seeley 201 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Governors I have known : William Pennington ; Phile- 
mon Dickerson; Daniel Haines 237 



viii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Judges during and soon after the Revolution : Samuel 
Tucker; Robert Morris; David Brearly; James Kin- 
sey; Isaac Smith; John Cleves Symmes; John Chet- 
wood; Elisha Boudinot ^ 264 

CHAPTER X. 

Judges I have known : Bushrod Washington ; William 

Griffith 281 

CHAPTER XI. 

Judges I have known: Andrew Kirkpatrick; William 
RossELL ; Gabriel H. Ford ; George K. Drake ; 
Thomas C. Ryerson 301 

CHAPTER XII. 

Judges I have jcnown: Charles Ewing; John Moore 
AVhite ; Daniel Elmer ; James S. Nevius ; Ira C. 
Whitehead; Elias B. D. Ogden; Stacy G. Potts . 326 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Judges I have known: Joseph C. Hornblower ; William 

L. Dayton; Edward AV. Whelpley; George II. BRO^^'N 361 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Lawyers I have known: Samuel Leake; Jasies Giles; 
Ricii.\rd__Stockton ; Lucius H. Stockton ; George 
Wood; Garret D. Wall; William W. Miller; Jacob 

/ W. Miller 403 

CHAPTER XV. 

Lawyers I have known : Theodore Frelinghuysen ; 
John Rutheufurd ; William Chetwood ; John J. 
Chetwood ; Aaron O. Dayton ; William N. Jeffkrs ; 
Alphonso L. Eakin ; Josiaii Harrison ; Francis L. 
Macculloch ; Richard P. Thompson ; Asa White- 
head ; Joseph W. Scott 440 

APPENDIX. — Titles to Land 481 



PUBLICATIONS 

OF THE 

NEW JEESEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

For Sale by JIartin R. Dexxis & Co., Newark, N. J. 



"COLLECTIONS, VOL. I.," containing "East Jersey under the Provincial 
Governments ; a Narrative of Events connected witli tlie Settlement and 
Progress of tiic Province, until the Surrender of the Government to the 
Crown in 1702. Drawn principally from Original Sources: by William 
A. Whitehead. With an Appendix, containing a Model of the Govern- 
ment of East New Jersey, by George Scot, of Pitlochie, now first reprinted 
from the original edition of 168,5." 8vo, pp. 342 — xv., with Maps and 
Plates (Out of print.) 

" COLLECTIONS, VOL. II.," containing " The Life of William Alexanoer, 
Earl of Stirling, Major-general in the Army of the United States during 
the Ilevoliition : with Selections from his Correspondence, by his Grandson, 
William Alexander Duer, LL. D." Svo, pp. 284, with Portrait and 
Maps. $1. 

" COLLECTIONS, VOL. III.," containing " The Provincial Courts of New 
Jersey, with Sketches of the Bench and Bar : by Richard S. Field." 
Svo, pp. 324. SI. .50. 

" COLLECTIONS, VOL. IV.," containing the Papers of Lewis Morris, Gov- 
ernor of the Province of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746. With Portrait. 
8vo, pp. 336— XXX. $2. 

"COLLECTIONS, VOL. V.," containing "An Analytical Index to the 
Colonial Documents of New Jersey, in the State Paper Offices of England, 
compiled by Henry Stevexs. Edited, with Notes and Peferences to 
printed works and manuscripts in other depositories, by William A. 
Whitehead." 8vo, pp. 504 — xxx. $2.50. 

" COLLECTIONS, VOL. VI.," containing " Records of the Town of Newark, 
New Jersey, from its Settlement in 1666, to its Incorporation as a City in 
1836— with Maps." Svo, pp. 294— x. $2. 

And Supplement thereto, containing " Proceedings Commemorative of 
the Settlement of Newark, New Jersey, on its Two Hundredth Anniver- 



2 

sary, May 17, 1866," comprising: I. Historical Memoir, by William 
A. Whitehead ; II. Lyrical Poem, by Thomas Ward, M. D. ; III. Ora- 
tion, by William B. Kinney ; IV. Genealogical Notes of the Settlers, by 
Samuel H. Congar; V. Notes. 8vo, pp. 182. $1.50. 

%* The Volumes of " Collections " are bound and lettered as distinct works, 
} well as in sets. 



"PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY." 

In Paper Covers. 

VOL. I. contains — Proceedings of Meetings at Trenton to organize the Soci- 
ety, February, 1845. Proceedings at Newark, May 7, 1845. — Discourse 
by Charles King, Esq. Proceedings at Trenton, September 4, 1845. — 
Journal of Capt. John Schuyler, on an Expedition to Canada, in August, 
1690. — Three Letters from Kcv. Samuel Davies, President of Princeton 
College, 1759-60. — Address by Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D. Proceedings 
at New Brunswick, November 6, 1845. — Three Letters from Governor 
Franklin to his Father, June and October, 1767, and May, 1759. — Letter 
from William Strahan, London, 1766. Proceedings at Trenton, January 
15, 1846. — Letter from Lord Cornbury to the Inhabitants of Bergen, 1706. 
Proceedings at Burlington, May 1, 1846. — Letter from William Dockwra, 
Proprietaries' Register, to Governor Andrew Hamilton, April 1, 1693. — 
An Account of a Journey in the Southern States in 1781, by Abel Thomas. 
— An Account of the Capture and Death of the Refugee John Bacon, by 
George F. Fort, M. D. — Extracts from a Paper on the Discovery and 
Settlement of Monmouth County, by Rev. A. A. Marccllus. Proceedings 
at Salem, September 3, 1846. — Corrections of Errors in Mr. King's 
Discourse. — Exports of Salem County. — Criminal Statistics of Essex 
County. — Proceedings of the Committees of Freehold and Shrewsbury on 
the opening of the Revolution. — Index. SI .50. 

VOL. II. contains — Proceedings of Society at Elizabethtowu, November 5, 
1846. — Proceedings of the Government of New York, December, 1675, to 
December, 1678, in Relation to the Settlement and Jurisdiction of Major 
John Fenwick in West Jersey. — Journal of Lieut. William Barton, during 
Sullivan's Expedition against the Indians, in 1779. — Extracts from 
Journal of Dr. P^benezer Elmer, during the same Expedition. Proceedings 
at Trenton, January 1, 1847. — Second Annual Address, by Hon. Joseph 
C. Hornblower, LL. D., President of the Society. Proceedings at Newark, 
May 27, 1847. — Diary of Events in Charleston, S. C, from March 20 to 
April 20, 1780, during the Siege by the British: by Samuel Baldwin. 
Proceedings at New Brunswick, June 25, 1847. — Journal of an Expedi- 
tion to Canada, in 1776, by Lieut. Ebenezer Elmer, of the New Jersey 
Forces. Proceedings at Freehold, September 16, 1847. — Letter from 
Richard Stockton to Robert Ogden, about Public Affairs, 1765. — Index. 
$1.50. 



VOL. III. contains — Proceedings of the Society at Trenton, January 20, 1848. 

— Letter from James Logan to Colonel Cox, June, 1719, relative to the 
Dividing Line of East and West Jersey. — Journal of Lieut. Ebenezer 
Elmer (continued from Vol. IL). Proceedings at Newark, May 25, 1848. 

— Letter from David Ogden, February 20, 1767, to the Claimants under 
Indian Purchases. — Memoir of Rev. James Caldwell, by Rev. Nicholas 
Murray, D. D. — Extract from a Diary of Mr. Jacob Spicer, 1757. — A 
Brief Account of the Swedish Mission in Racoon and Penn's Neck: by 
Rev. Nicholas Collin, D. D. Proceedings at Princeton, September 27, 
1848. — A Biographical Sketch of Governor AVilliam Franklin: by Wil- 
liam A. Whitehead. Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1849. — Letter 
from Governor Franklin to his Father, December 24, 1774. — Journal of 
Major William Gould during an Expedition into Pennsylvania, 1794. — 
Index. $1.50. 

VOL. IV. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 17, 1849. — 
Memoir of Governor Lewis Morris, by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D. — 
Census of Northampton, Burlington County, 1709. — List of Judges, 
Clerks, Sheriffs, Surrogates, and Attorneys of Salem County, from the 
Settlement. — Memoir of John Fenwick, Chief Proprietor of Salem Tenth, 
by Robert G. Johnson. — Letters from William Strahan to David Hall, 
describing the Trial of John Wilkes. Proceedings of Meeting at Freehold, 
September, 1849. — State of Religion in the Provinces of East and West 
Jersey in 1700. — The Battle of Monmouth Court House, by Charlen 
King, Esq. —T Letters from William Pcartree Smith, to Elias Boudinot. 
Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 17, 1850. — Letter from Rev. 
Uzal Ogden, Missionary to Sussex County, 1771. — Lease for a Year from 
Dame Elizabeth Carteret, to the Twelve Proprietors, for East Jersey. — 
The Aborigines of New Jersey, by Archer Giftord, Esq. — Index. $1.50. 

VOL. V. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 16, 1850. — 
Letter of Major-general Baron Steuben to Officers of the New Jersey Line, 
July 19, 1793. — Tables of the Sittings of the Provincial Assemblies, and 
Names of Members. — Orders of Generals Schuyler and Sullivan to Colo- 
nel Jonathan Dayton, 1776. Proceedings of Meeting at Morristown, 
September 12, 1850. — The Robbery of the Treasury, in 1768 : by W. A. 
Whitehead. — The Hollanders in New Jersey : by Rev. Abraham Messier, 
D. D. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 23, 1851. — The 
American Union, and the Perils to which it has been exposed : by J. P. 
Bradley, Esq. — Letters of Joseph Sherwood, Provincial Agent. Proceed- 
ings of Meeting at Newark, May 15, 1851. — Letter from Major F. Barber, 
1776. — Letter from Joseph Shippen, Jun., 1752. — Selections from Corre- 
spondence of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling. — Index. $1.50. 

VOL. VI. contains — Proceedings of Meeting at Somerville, September 11, 
1851. — Letter from Robert Morris, 1781. — Journal of Andrew Bell, Sec- 
retary of General Clinton, kept during the March of the British Army 
through New Jersey, in 1778. — Inquiry into the Location of Mount Ploy- 
den : by Rev. George C. Schanck. — Review of the Trial of the Rev. Wil- 
liam Tennent, 1742: by Richard S. Field. — Selections from Correspond- 



ence of "William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings of 
Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1852. Selections from Correspondence 
of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings of Meeting 
at Newark, May 20, 1852. — The Uses and Benefits of Historical Socie- 
ties : by Hon. Theodore Frelinghnysen, LL. D. — Selections from Corre- 
spondence of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, in 1755. Proceedings 
of Meeting at New Brunswick, September 8, 1852. — Description of the 
Site of Fort Nassau on the Delaware : by Edward Armstrong. — The 
Pennsylvania Insurrection of 1794: by Rev. James Carnahan, D. D. 
Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1853. — Report of Cor- 
responding Secretary on the Belcher Papers. — Report of Committee au- 
thorized to examine supposed Site of Fort Nassau. — The Discovery of the 
Northmen : by Charles C. Rafn, Secretary of the Society of Northera 
Antiifuaries. — The History and Location of Fort Nassau on the Delaware: 
by Edwai'd Annstrong. — Index. $1.50. 

VOL. VII. contains — Proceedings at Newark, May 19, 1853. — Letter from 
" Pierwim, ye Sachem of Pau," relative to " Cooks of Dozens " in Collec- 
tions, Vol. I. — Biographical Sketcli of General William Winds : by Rev. 
Joseph F. Tuttle. — Selections from Correspondence of William Alexan- 
der, Earl of Stirling, Major-general during the Revolution. Proceedings 
of Meeting at Trenton, January 19, 1854. — Proceedings on Announce- 
ment of Death of Hon. James G. King. — "The Iron State, its Natural 
Position, Power, and Wealth ; " an Address by Hon. Jacob W. Miller. 
Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 18, 1 854. — Diary of Joseph Clark, 
attached to the Continental Army, from May, 1778, to November, 1779. 
Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 18, 1855. — Letter fiom Rev. 
Dr. Hopkins to Rev. Dr. Bellamy, July 20, 1758. Proceedings of Meeting 
at Newark, May 17, 1855.— Index. $1.50. 

VOL. VIII. c6ntains — Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 17, 1856. 

— Drawings and Papers of Robert Fulton in the possession of the Society. 

— Account of the Establishment at Monistown of the first Academy, Li- 
brary, and Printing Press. Proceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 15, 
1856. — Supplement to the Act of Incorporation. Proceedings of Meeting 
at Jersey City, September 25, 1856. — Extracts from Manuscripts of Sam- 
uel Smith. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 15, 1857. Pro- 
ceedings of Meeting at Newark, May 21, 1857. — Field and Stafl^ Officers 
New Jersey Regiments in Revolution. — Appointment of Nathaniel Jones 
as Chief Justice in 1759 : by W. A. Whitehead. — Journal of Capt. David 
Ford, during the Expedition into Pennsylvania in 1794. Proceedings of 
Meeting at Trenton, January 21, 1858. — Proposals of Colonel Mawhood 
to the Militia of Salem County in 1778, and Answer of Colonel Hand. — 

\ Female Suffrage in New Jersey : by W. A. Whitehead. — Brief History of 

T the Boundary Disputes between New York and New Jei-sey : by Hon. 

James Parker. — Staten Island part of New Jersey. Proceedings of Meet- 
ing at Newark, May 20, 1858. — Extract from Jounial of Lieut. Isaac 
Bangs. Proceedings of Meeting at Trenton, January 20, 1859. Proceed- 
ings of Meeting at Newark, May 19, 1859. — The Circumstances leading 
to the Establishment in 1769 of the Northern Boundary Line between 
New Jersey and New York : by W. A. Whitehead. — Inde.x. $1.50. 



VOL. IX. contains — Proceeding's at Trenton, January 19, 1860. — Extract 
from the MSS. of Samuel Smith. — Marriages of Friends in Fliiladclj)hia, 
1682-1714. Proeeedings at Newark, May 17, 18G0. — Origin of the name 
" Pavonia," by Solomon Alofsen. — Memoir of Samuel G. Smith : by John 
Jay Smith. — Project for raising Money in 1716, by William Pinhornc. 
Proceedings at Trenton, January 17, 1861. — Extracts from the Minutes 
of New Jersey Supreme Court, 1765. — Battles of Trenton and Princeton : 
by C. C. Haven. Proceedings at Trenton, January 16, 1862. — Announce- 
ment of Deaths of Rev. Dr. Murray and John P. Jackson, Esq. — Memo- 
randa relating to Dr. Franklin's Administration of the Colonial Post 
Office. — Memoir of Mrs. Abigail Stafford and her Times. — Proprietors' 
Order respecting " Perth Towne," 1683. — Affairs of New York and New 
Jersey under the Joint Governors: by Cadwallader Golden. — Letter to 
Governor Franklin from Hon. H. S. Conway, Under Secretary of State, 
1765. Pi'oeeedings at Newark, May 15, 1862. — Steamboat Controversy 
between New York and New Jersey, 1811 to 1824: by John D. Ward. 
Proceedings at Trenton, January 15, 1863. — Scandinavian Settlementa 
in New Jersey. Proceedings at Newark, May 21, 1863. Proceedings at 
Trenton, January 21, 1864. — Papers of General Elias Dayton. Proceed- 
ings at Newark, May 19, 1864. —Index. $1.50. 

VOL. X. contains — Proceedings at Trenton, January 19, 1865. — Address on 
the Life and Character of the Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, LL. D. : by tha 
Hon. Richard S. Field. Proceedings at Newark, May 18, 1865. — Sketch 
of the McWhorter Family in New Jersey, by George C. McWhorter. — 
Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1866. — Description of an Ancient 
Brass Tobacco Box, by S. Alofsen. — Instructions of Freeholders of Hun- 
terdon to the Representatives of the County, 1771. — Papers on the East- 
ern Boundary of New Jersey : by W. A. Whitehead. Proceedings at New- 
ark, May 17, 1866. — Communication from Asher Taylor on the derivation 
of " Neversink." — Letter to Dr. Benjamin Franklin from the House of 
Assembly of New Jersey, December 7, 1769. — Account of the Portrait of 
Aaron Burr in the Possession of the Society : by David A. Hayes.— Objec- 
tions of New Jersey to the Articles of Confederation submitted to Congress, 
June 23, 1778. — Report of the Commissioners of the States at Annapolis, 
September 14, 1786, relative to the adoption of a better System of Govern- 
ment for the States. — Act of Incorporation of the Society. — Members of 
the Society, December, 1866. — Index. $1.75. 

NEW SERIES — VOL. I. contains — Proceedings at Trenton, January 17, 
1867. Proceedings at Newark, May 16, 1867. — Pedigree of Governor 
Carteret. — Sraten Island and the New Jersey Boundary. — Regimental 
Returns, Haddonfield, Bordentown, Morristown, December, 1776, and 
January, 1777. — Letter from David Ogden to Philip Kearney, Januarj 
14, 1766. Proceedings at Trenton, January 16, 1868. Proceedings at 
Newark, May 22, 1868. — Inscriptions on Tombstones near Freehold. — 
Letter from Quartermaster-general Greene to Col. James Abeel, June 4, 
1779. — Letter from Gen. Washington to Dr. Franklin. — Notes on the 
State of New Jersey, 1786: by John Rutherfiird. — Letter from Wm. S. 
Living.ston to Col. Burr, July 10, 1782. — Officers of Col. Peter Schuyler's 



6 

Regiment, 1759. Proceedings at Trenton, January 21, 1869. —Letter 
from Gen. Washington to Rev. Samuel Haven, March 10, 1787. — Inscrip- 
tions on Tombstones at Ringwood, N. J. — Grant from Berkeley and Car- 
teret to the People of Woodbridge and Samuel Moore, December 7, 1672. 
— Address on the Life and Character of Hon. James Parker: by the Hon. 
R. S. Field. Proceedings at Newark, May 20, 1869. —Review of some of 
the Circumstances connected with the Settlement of Elizabeth, N. J. : by 
W. A. Whitehead. — Commercial Prospects in New Jersey during the 
Confederation : by John Rutherfurd. — Index. $1 .75. 

NEW SERIES— VOL. II. contains ^ Proceedings at Trenton, January 20, 
1870. — Early History of Morris County : by Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, D. D. 
Proceedings at Newark, May 19, 1870.— Sketch of Rev. Barnabas King, 
D. D. : by Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, D. D. —Obituary Notice of Rev. David 
V. McLean, D. D. — Sketch of Life of Andrew Kirkpatrick, Chief Justice 
of New Jersey, 1803 to 1824 : by James Grant Wilson. Proceedings at 
Trenton, January 19, 1871.— Memoir of Hon. Richard S. Field: by An- 
thony J. Keasbey — History of the First Constitution of New Jersey, and 
of the Government under it : by Hon. Lewis Q. C. Elmer. Proceedings 
at Newark, May 18, 1871. Proceedings at Trenton, January 18, 1872. — 
Memoir of John Rutherfurd, late President of the Society : by Robert S. 
Swords. — Histoiy of the Circumstances attending the Election of Will- 
iam Pennington of New Jersey, as Speaker of 36th Congress : by Hon. 
John S. Nixon. — Index, $1.75. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF 
NEW JERSEY. 

THE government of New Jersey was first estab- 
lished by the proprietors, who claimed to derive 
the right from the grant of the Duke of York, Berke- 
ley and Carteret, his grantees, framed, or had framed 
for them, in England, a constitution, which was en- 
grossed on a parchment roll and signed by them, 
February 10, 1664, under the title of "The Con- 
cession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the 
Province of New Ca38aria or New Jersey, to and with 
all and every the Adventurers, and all such as shall 
settle or plant there." It is contained in " Leaming 
and Spice*'s Grants and Concessions," page 12, printed 
by virtue of an act of the legislature, in 1758, at Phil- 
adelphia, by W. Bradford, printer to the King's most 
excellent Majesty, for the Province of New Jersey. 

Under these concessions, which were republican in 
their character, a government was commenced, and 
with some interruption, occasioned by the Dutch 
conquest and other causes, continued until the par- 
tition into East and West Jersey, by means of the 
Quintipartite deed in 1676. After this, the govern- 
ment of the two provinces was distinct, until the sur- 
render to Queen Anne in 1702. 



2 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

In 1682, Robert Barclay was appointed Governor 
for life by the proprietors of East Jersey, and exe- 
cuted the office by a deputy, who convened an assem- 
bly elected by the people. Counties were established, 
and a high sheriff appointed for each, and courts were 
organized. No other assembly appears to have sat 
until 1680. In 1688, it sat again. From 1692 to 1695 
assemblies convened yearly, and afterwards at irreg- 
ular intervals. Much doubt existed as to the legal- 
ity of this proprietary government, and difficulty was 
experienced in carrying it on, much aggravated by 
disputes about Indian grants and the quitrents re- 
served by the proprietors. Proceedings were com- 
menced in the court of king's bench in England, to 
deprive the proprietary officers of their places, by 
means of a writ of quo ivarranto, and this led to the sur- 
render of the government to the crown, the proprie- 
tors retaining their exclusive right to dispose of the 
soil. 

West Jersey was governed according to the provis- 
ions of " The concessions and agreements of the pro- 
prietors, freeholders, and inhabitants of the Province 
of West New Jersey in America," dated *March 3, 
1676, and signed by William Penn, and one hundred 
and forty-eight others, the original of which, beauti- 
fully engrossed on vellum in a well-bound quarto, is 
preserved in the land-office at Burlington.^ Some of 
the governors were appointed by the proprietors, and 
others by the legislature ; which latter body appears 
to have appointed all the other officers necessary 
to carry on the government. Difficulties, however, 
arose, and the proprietors joined with those of East 
Jersey, in the surrender. 

^ See Learn, and Spic. 382. 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 3 

The laws enacted by these two governments do not 
appear to have been prhited, until such of them as 
were extant were collected b}^ Learning and Spicer. 
They were sent in manuscript to the counties and 
read at public assemblies of the people. The minutes 
of the county court of Cape May for 1694, contain 
this entry : " We, the grand jury, see cause to pre- 
sent George Taylor (he was the Clerk), for publishing 
a false copy of the act of Assembly, on a court day in 
December, 1693." He pleaded not guilty, and was 
tried. Some witnesses swore that he read the laws 
differently at two courts, and that when he first read 
them " they was not interlined." " Jeremiah Basse, 
President of the Court, asserteth them to be the same 
laws and written by the same hand ; the rest of the 
Justices say it is like the same hand, and they believe 
it to be the same hand." The jury found him not 
guilty, and he was cleared by proclamation. None 
of these laws are now in force, although several of 
them, slightl}^ modified, are still on the statute book 
as substantially reenacted after the surrender, and 
the influence of the correct principles contained in 
the Concessions still continues, and it is hoped will 
never be lost. 

Upon the assumption of the government by the 
Queen of England, in 1702, a governor of the Prov- 
ince of " Nova Ca3saria or New Jersey," was ap- 
pointed and commissioned under the great seal of 
Great Britain, to hold his office during the pleasure 
of the sovereign, and continued to be so appointed 
and commissioned until the Revolution. The commis- 
sion and the instructions accompanying it, drawn 
with great care and ability by the law officers of the 
crown, contain the constitution under which the gov- 



4 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ernment of the province was administered, with but 
little variation, until the- adoption of the new consti- 
tution in 1776. They, in fact, introduced the main 
features of the British Constitution, as improved by 
the Revolution of 1688, with a still larger infusion 
of the republican element, suited to a people already 
accustomed to self-government. 

The executive power was confided to the governor 
with the advice of twelve counselors, appointed orig- 
inally, and occasionally afterward, by the crown, but 
more commonly by the governor himself, six of whom 
were residents of East, and six of West Jersey, five 
constituting a quorum. The title adopted by the 
governors, with unimportant variations, was " Cap- 
tain-General and Governor-in-chief, in and over the 
Province of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey and ter- 
ritories thereon depending in America, Chancellor 
and Vice-Ad miral in the same." 

The legislative power was vested in the governor,- 
the council, and a General Assembly. The Assembly 
was convened, adjourned, and dissolved at the pleas- 
ure of the governor and council, and elected by vir- 
tue of writs under the great seal of the colony ; two 
by the inhabitants and householders of the town of 
Perth Amboy, and ten by the freeholders of East Jer- 
sey ; two by the inhabitants and householders of the 
town of Burlington, and ten by the freeholders of 
West Jersey. The governor usually sat with the 
council, but no law could be passed without his 
assent, the style used being, " Be it enacted by the 
Governor, Council, and General Assembly." In 1709, 
they passed an act reciting that the present constitu- 
tion granted by the Queen, was found inconvenient, 
and to remedy the same, enacting that after the dis- 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 5 

solution of the present assembly, the representati^'es 
should be chosen by the majority of voices or votes 
of the freeholders of each county, having one hun- 
dred acres of land in his own right, or be worth fifty 
pounds current money ; and that the person elected 
should have one thousand acres of land in his own 
right, or be worth five hundred pounds in real and 
personal estate. Two were to be elected for Perth 
Amboy, and two for each of the then five counties 
of East Jersey ; two for each of the towns of Bur- 
lington and Salem, and two for each of the then four 
counties of West Jersey. This equality between the 
two ancient divisions was carefully adhered to. Hun- 
terdon County was established in 1714, but continued 
to choose representatives in conjunction with Burling- 
ton until 1727, when it was authorized to choose two, 
and Salem town was deprived of its separate repre- 
sentation. Cumberland County was set off from Sa- 
lem in 1747, but continued to elect representatives 
as before, until 1768, when two additional members 
were added from Morris County, two from Cumber- 
land, and two from Sussex, this last county extend- 
ing into both divisions. 

In 1725 an act was passed requiring the sheriff and 
other officer to whom a writ of election was directed, 
to give public notice of the day and place of election ; 
and on that day, between the hours of ten and twelve, 
to proceed to the election, by reading his writ, and 
that he should not declare the choice upon the view 
(that is merely from a vote by holding up of hands), 
nor adjourn, without the consent of the candidates, 
but should, if a poll was required, proceed from day 
to day, and time to time, until all the electors then 
and there present be polled ; and he was required to 



6 REMINISCENCES OF NEW 'JERSEY. 

appoint a clerk who should set down the names of 
the electors and the persons they voted for. There 
was of course but one place of election in each county. 
This mode of election continued for some time after 
1776. The poll, if one was required, generally closed 
the first day ; but on some occasions was kept open 
a week, or longer. In 1789, in consequence of the 
rivalry between East and West Jersey, as to whether 
the seat of the general government should be tempo- 
rarily at New York or Philadelphia, the polls were 
kept open, in some of the western counties, three or 
four weeks. 

Voting by ballot does not appear to have been 
practiced until after the Revolution. It was intro- 
duced in some of the counties in 1779, but was soon 
discontinued during the war. In 1783 the election 
by ballot was restored in several counties ; in 1790 
it was required in others; and in 1797 in all the 
counties. 

From the surrender until the Revolution, a period 
of seventy-four years, there were twenty-two assem- 
blies, some of which continued but one 3'ear, others 
longer, and one from 1761 to 1769, — eight years. In 
1768 an act was passed — of course with the concur- 
rence of the governor — that a general assembly should 
be holden once in seven years at least; to which Al- 
linson, in his edition of the laws published in 1776, 
just before the Declaration of Independence, appends 
a note, that " although this act never had the royal 
assent, it is here inserted, on the probability that so 
reasonable a law will be regarded." The Assembly 
first elected after this act, was dissolved at the end 
of three years ; and that convened in 1772, dissolved 
itself in 1776. The number and duration of the sit- 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 7 

tings of the several assemblies were very diverse, 
there having been on some occasions five or six 
within one year; and on others there was an inter- 
val of two, and once of five years, without an assem- 
bly being convened. 

All the provincial officers for the whole colony or 
a county, including even the clerks of the Assembly, 
were appointed directly by the crown, by writ of 
privy seal, or by the governor and council, and were 
commissioned in the name of the reigning king, un- 
der the great seal of the province, which was in the 
keeping of the governor. The instructions required 
him to take care that the officers be men of good 
life, and well affected to our government, of good 
estates and abilities, and not necessitous people, or 
much in debt. 

For several years the proprietors in England had 
much influence in the appointment of the officers. 
In 1715, by an instrument under their hands and 
seals, they appointed James Smith clerk of the su- 
preme court, and James Alexander surveyor-general ; 
and a letter was directed to Governor Hunter, in the 
name of King George, requiring him to receive, assist, 
and countenance them in the execution of their offices. 
Occasionally, the officers appointed by the governor 
and council were superseded, by direct appointments 
from the crown. 

The governor and council were empowered to erect, 
constitute, and establish such courts as they should 
think necessary, and to appoint and commission 
judges and all other necessary officers and magis- 
trates, and were instructed not to displace any of the 
judges or other officers without good cause, to be sig- 
nified to the crown, and not to express any limitation 



8 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of time in the commissions. According to the Eng- 
lish Constitution, the King or Queen is considered the 
fountain of justice, and general conservator of the 
peace, and this branch of the royal prerogative was 
delegated, so far as the province was concerned, in 
a very ample manner, to the governor and council. 
By virtue of this power, they granted patents estab- 
lishing and altering the boundaries of townships, con- 
stituting municipal and other corporations, and estab- 
lishing and regulating ferries ; and by ordinances, 
established courts of justice, defined their powers, 
appointed the times and places at which they should 
be held, and regulated the fees. 

Lord Cornbury, the first governor, promulgated an 
ordinance in 1704; and as is remarked by Mr. Field 
in his interesting account of the provincial courts of 
New Jersey, " he is entitled to the credit of having 
laid the foundation of our whole judicial system, and 
laid it well." Justices were to have cognizance of 
cases to the value of forty shillings. In each county, 
there was established a court of common pleas, hav- 
ing power to try all actions at common law, and a 
court of general sessions of the peace, each with quar- 
terly terms ; and for the province, a supreme court, 
to sit once in each year at Perth Amboy and at Bur- 
lington, and to have cognizance of all pleas, civil, crim- 
inal, and mixed, as fully as the courts of queen's 
bench, common pleas, and exchequer in England. 
In 1714 the supreme court was required to hold two 
terms yearly in each place, and courts for the trial of 
issues were appointed to be held yearly in each county. 
The ordinance of Cornbury is in his own name, by 
the advice and consent of the council ; and this ex- 
ample was followed by Governor Hunter. Afterwards 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 9 

the ordinances are in the name of the king ; but they 
all emanated from the same authority, namely, the 
governor and council. It does not appear that any 
of them were, like the commissions of the governor, 
by privy seal. The times and places of holding the 
courts, and the length of the terms, were from, time 
to time altered, but the constitution and powers of 
the courts remained the same, except that in 1724, 
no doubt through the influence of the proprietors, 
the jurisdiction of the common pleas was restricted 
so as to except causes wherein the right or title of 
any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, were in any 
wise concerned. After 1751 the supreme cornet fixed 
the times of holding the circuits. The jurisdiction of 
these several courts remains to this day, as established 
by the ordinance of 1724. The legislature from that 
time endeavored to regulate the practice and fees, 
generally without success, their acts, except in refer- 
ence to justices' courts, the jurisdiction of which was 
gradually enlarged, having been commonly disallowed 
by the king. 

It was provided by the original instructions, that 
appeals might be made from the courts, to the gov- 
ernor and council, in all cases where the sum or value 
appealed from exceeded one hundred pounds, with an 
ultimate appeal to the king's privy council, where the • 
sum or value appealed from exceeded two hundred 
pounds. The only material changes since made in the 
judicial system first established, have been the estab- 
lishment of an orphans' court in each county, and the 
giving to the circuit courts in each county original 
jurisdiction in all cases at common law, including 
cases where the title to land is in question, and equity 
powers in mortgage cases. 



10 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

A court of chancery was recognized as an essential 
part of the judiciary, from the first, although no sep- 
arate tribunal for the exercise of equity powers ap- 
pears to have been instituted, either in East or West 
Jersey. Lord Cornbury provided by ordinance, that 
the governor or lieutenant-governor for the time be- 
ing, and any three of the council, should constitute 
a court of chancery, and hear and determine causes, 
according to the usage or custom of the high court 
of chancery in the kingdom of England. Afterwards 
Governor Hunter claimed a right to exercise the 
powers of chancellor alone, without the aid of his 
council, and this course was sanctioned by the king. 
In 1770 Governor Franklin, with the advice of his 
council, adopted an ordinance, by which, after recit- 
ing that there had always been a court of chancery 
in the province, and that the same required regu- 
lation, it was ordained, that his Excellency, William 
Franklin, be constituted and appointed chancellor, 
and empowered to appoint and commission such mas- 
ters, clerks, examiners, registers, and other necessary 
officers as should be needful in holding the said court, 
and doing the business thereof; and also to make 
such rules for carrying on the business of the said 
court as from time to time should seem necessary. 
The constitution and powers of this court remain un- 
altered, except that the governor is no longer chan- 
cellor ; the office of register has been abolished, and 
the appointment of a clerk conferred on the gov- 
ernor and senate. The rules of practice were first 
systematized, so that the business transacted therein 
became important, in 1818, during the chancellor- 
ship of Governor Williamson. No appeal was pro- 
vided for, unless it was to the king in council, and no 



CONSTITUTION .AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 11 

one is known to have been otherwise demanded until 
in 1799, the legishxture enacted, that an appeal might 
be taken to the court of errors and appeals. 

The ecclesiastical jurisdiction was reserved to the 
Bishop of London, excepting only, " the collating to 
benefices, granting licenses for marriages, and the 
probate of wills," which were assigned to the gov- 
ernor. By virtue of this grant, he became the Or- 
dinary and Metropolitan of the province, having all 
the powers in regard to the estates of deceased per- 
sons, which, in England, belonged to the courts of 
the bishop and archbishop. As judge, therefore, of 
the " Prerogative Court," which is the title of the 
archbishop's court, he had the sole and exclusive juris- 
diction of matters relating to wills, to administrations, 
and to guardianships, with no superior but the king 
and his privy council. 

It being very inconvenient, and indeed almost im- 
possible, for the people in all parts of the province to 
resort to the governor, especially when he resided in 
New York, he appointed deputies, called surrogates, 
as was also the practice in England, to act for him. 
In 1720, Michael Kearney was commissioned, under 
the great seal, surrogate of the Province of New 
Jersey, with full power to swear the witnesses to last 
wills and testaments, and to admit administrations on 
the estates of persons dying intestate, and administer 
the oaths to executors and administrators, for the due 
execution of their offices, and their bonds in his name 
to take, to call to account and reckoning with execu- 
tors and administrators, and their accounts to exam- 
ine, approve, allow, and discharge, and quietus there- 
upon to give and grant, and the balance of said 
account to receive, for which he was to be accounta- 



12 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ble to him. Afterwards, one was appointed for each 
division, and as occasion required more, sometimes 
one for two or three counties, and sometimes more 
than one in the same county. They were of course 
removable at the pleasure of the governor, and were 
simply deputies, the probate of wills and other offi- 
cial acts being generally in his name and under his 
hand and official seal as ordinary. He retained the 
power of acting himself in the first instance, in all 
cases brought before him, in his court. The acts of 
his surrogates were recognized as valid by the courts, 
and they were considered lawful and competent 
judges of the matters submitted to their cognizance. 
When disputes arose, they were settled in the pre- 
rogative court. 

The surrogate's commission, it will be perceived, 
required him to be accountable to the ordinary 
for the balance of an account in the hands of an 
administrator. This was to enable him to distribute 
it to the next of kin, pursuant to the English Stat- 
ute of Distribution, enacted in the time of Charles 
n., not long before the surrender. Unless some dis- 
pute arose, it is supposed that the balance was com- 
monly paid over by the administrator himself to 
those entitled. 

In 1784, orphans' courts were established, and pro- 
vision was made by law for one surrogate being ap- 
pointed in each county, whose power was limited to 
the county. The original jurisdiction of the ordinary 
remained as before, until in 1820 it was restricted to 
the granting of probates of wills, letters of adminis- 
tration, letters of guardianship, and to the hearing 
and finally determining of disputes that may arise 
thereon. In these matters it is still concurrent with 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 13 

that of the surrogates and orphans' courts ; and from 
all orders and decrees of the orphans' courts an ap- 
peal may be taken to the prerogative court. In 1822 
the appointment of the surrogate was given to the 
joint meeting, and so remained until the new consti- 
tution provided for his election by a popular vote. 

By the constitution of the supreme court, it was 
invested with plenary jurisdiction in criminal, as well 
as civil cases. Until several years after the Revolu- 
tion, it was the practice to summon grand juries, by 
virtue of a writ for that purpose, directed to the sher- 
iff of the county in which it sat, who inquired and 
made presentments, and passed on indictments for 
offenses committed in that county. Other criminal 
cases were brought there by the attorney-general, or 
on special leave by the defendant. Trials of criminal 
and civi] cases, by a jury of the county in which the 
offense was alleged to have been committed, or the 
cause of action arose, were quite frequent, there being 
seldom a term without one or more. 

Special commissions of oyer and terminer were 
issued for the trial of felonies in the different coun- 
ties, when considered necessary, and regularly at the 
times of the yearly circuit courts. They were com- 
monly directed to the justices of the supreme court, 
or two of them, and to the judges and justices of the 
county, empowering them, or any three of them, of 
whom a justice of the supreme court should be one, 
the jail of the place of sitting, of the prisoners there- 
in being, to deliver, and at a day by them to be ap- 
pointed, diligently to make inquiry upon the prem- 
ises, and all and singular the said premises hear and 
determine, and the jail there deliver, and those things 
do and perform according to the law and custom of 



14 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the kingdom of England, and of the Province of New 
Jersey ; and commanding the sheriff to bring before 
them the prisoners with their attachments ; the com- 
mission to continue in force a certain specified time, 
sometimes a few days and sometimes several months. 
These commissions continued to be issued until the 
passage of the act of 1794. 

Clerks of the courts were appointed by the gov- 
ernor, and commissioned to hold during pleasure. 
There were, besides, one or more clerks of the cir- 
cuit, who attended the sittings in the counties, 
and kept their own minutes. A book containing 
such minutes of the oyer and terminer and circuit 
courts, held in most of the counties from 1749 to 
1762, is preserved in the clerk's office of the County 
of Middlesex. The oyer and terminer, as well as the 
circuit, were regarded as branches of the supreme 
court, and the proceedings therein subject to its con- 
trol. The clerks seem to have exercised the power 
of appointing deputies. 

Benefit of clergy was prayed for and allowed, as in 
England. In one instance, the entry in the minutes 
of the oyer is, " the prisoners being asked if they had 
anything to say why sentence of death should not 
pass on them, according to the verdict found against 
them, prayed the benefit of the clergy ; the court be- 
ing of opinion that they were entitled to the ben- 
efit of their clergy, their judgment is that they be 
branded in the brawn of their left thumb with the 
letter T. immediately in the face of the court, which 
sentence was executed accordingly ; and ordered that 
they be recommitted till their fees are paid, and they 
each enter into recognizance in one hundred pounds, 
to be of good behavior for one year." 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 15 

The ordinance establishing the circuits, required 
the high sheriff, justices of the peace, the mayor and 
aldermen of any corporation within the counties, and 
all officers of any of the courts, to be attending on 
the chief justice and other justices going the circuit, 
at his coming into and leaving the several counties, 
and during his abode within the same ; and the prac- 
tice, as it was in England until the introduction of 
railways, was for the sheriff, with as many justices 
and other gentlemen on horseback as he could con- 
veniently collect, to await the arrival of the judge at 
the county line, to which he was in like manner 
escorted by the officers of the adjoining county, and 
escort him to his lodgings. At the opening and clos- 
ing of the court, from day to day, the sheriff and con- 
stables with their staves of office, escorted him from 
and to his place of lodging to the court-house, as was 
indeed the usual custom until very recently. 

When sitting in court, the justices of the supreme 
court wore a robe of office, and commonly a wig, 
although it is not probable, that like their brethren 
in England, they considered it necessary to carry four 
of these indispensable articles, namely, " the brown 
scratch wig for the morning when not in court ; the 
powdered dress wig for dinner ; the tie wig with the 
black coif when sitting on the civil side of the court; 
and the full-bottomed one for the criminal side." 

At May term, 1765, the supreme court promulgated 
the foUowino; rule : " The court considering that it is 
the usage in England for counselors at law, during 
term time at Westminster, and on the circuits through 
the kingdom, constantly to appear in the court hab- 
ited in robes or gowns adapted to the profession of 
the law, and as the introduction of the like usage 



16 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

into this province may tend to advance the dignity, 
solemnity, and decorum of our courts, and have many 
other useful consequences : It is therefore ordained, 
that no person practicing as counsel at the bar (ex- 
cept those of the people called Quakers), shall for the 
future appear at any supreme court to be held in 
this province, or in any of the courts on the circuits, 
unless he be habited in the bar gown and band, com- 
monly worn by barristers at Westminster, and on the 
circuits in England, under a penalty of a contempt 
of this rule." It continued to be observed until 1791, 
when the leading counselors presented a petition, 
setting forth that it was found to be troublesome 
and inconvenient, and deemed by them altogether 
useless, and it was rescinded. 

In 1763, in the absence of Chief Justice Morris, the 
court, upon the ground that his majesty's subjects 
inhabiting within this province, who were possessed 
of entailed estates, labored under great disadvantages 
on account of the small number of persons empowered 
to pass fines or suffer recoveries, appointed Cortland t 
Skinner and Richard Stockton, sergeants at law. But 
the next day, the chief justice being in attendance, 
Mr. Skinner, the attorney-general, expressing great 
doubts as to the regularity of the proceeding, an- 
nounced that he was unwilling to practice as a ser- 
geant under this appointment, whereupon the court 
took the matter into consideration, and being of opin- 
ion that sergeants could not be regularly made or ap- 
pointed by rule of the court, but ought, on the recom- 
mendation of the judges, to be called up by writ out 
of chancery, and then sworn, agreeable to the practice 
in England, annulled what had been done. 

Commissions of the peace were issued by the gov- 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 17 

ernor and council, agreeably to the practice in Eng- 
land, whereby justices were appointed for the differ- 
ent counties, yearly or otherwise, as they chose ; a 
part of whom were designated as of the quorum, so 
that a court of sessions could not be held without the 
presence of one of them. These commissions appear 
to have generally included in each one, the members 
of the council, or some of them, the justices of the 
supreme court, and the attorney-general, so that they 
thus became conservators of the peace throughout the 
province. Judges of the pleas were commissioned, 
sometimes three or more together, and sometimes 
separately. The commissions used varied in their 
terms ; but it is believed that they in express terms 
declared that the office was to be held, " for and 
during our will and pleasure ;" or that they desig- 
nated no particular tenure, thus leaving the office 
to be in fact held during the pleasure of the execu- 
tive. 

Justices of the supreme court appear at first to 
have been commissioned, agreeably to the original 
instructions, without any express limitations; but 
they were by these instructions removable for cause, 
to be made known to the king. In some cases, the 
commission authorized the incumbent to execute his 
office, according to the laws, statutes, and customs of 
that part of our kingdom of Great Britain called Eng- 
land ; but no settled form was adhered to. Chief 
Justice Morris was commissioned during good be- 
havior, as early as 1738. In 1748, Samuel Nevill was 
commissioned to hold during pleasure ; but the next 
year this commission was revoked, and he was com- 
missioned to hold during good behavior, and this ap- 
pears to have been afterwards the usual tenure, until 



18 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

1776, when the convention adopted the very ques- 
tionable term of seven years, still adhered to. 

Sheriffs were commissioned in this wise, or in some 
similar form : "We commit unto you, our County of 
E., in the Province of New Jersey, to keep from the 
date of these presents, during our pleasure, yielding 
unto us and our successors, our dues and other things 
to us belonging, and we command all our loving sub- 
jects in our said county, that to you in the execution 
of the office of high sheriff of our said county they be 
aiding, helping and assisting." In 1747, an act of the 
legislature confirmed by the crown, provided that the 
sheriff and under-sheriff should not continue in office 
above three years, and should be incapable of holding 
office again, until they had been out of office three 
years, and that no sheriff should be appointed who 
was not a freeholder and resident of his county and 
who had not been such for the three preceding years. 
Coroners were also appointed by the governor and 
council. 

An act was passed in 1714, to raise money for build- 
ing and repairing jails and court-houses, which au- 
thorized the inhabitants of each town and precinct, 
to assemble on the second Tuesday of March yearly, 
and choose two freeholders for the ensuing year, 
which said freeholders, together with all the justices 
of the peace of each county, or any three of them, 
one whereof being of the quorum, should meet to- 
gether, and appoint assessors and collectors, to assess 
the inhabitants, and collect the taxes. In case any 
town or precinct should neglect to elect freeholders, 
the justices were authorized to appoint them. The 
board thus constituted continued to have the care of 
the county business, until the act of 1798 incorporated 
the freeholders alone. 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE. 19 

Some of the townships, as has been stated, were 
established by patents under the great seal, which 
authorized the inhabitants to choose overseers of the 
highways, constables, overseers of the poor, an asses- 
sor, and a collector. In 1717 the inhabitants of all 
the townships were required to elect, annually, as- 
sessors and collectors of the taxes, and in case of 
neglect, any three justices, one being of the quorum, 
were authorized to appoint them. Constables, ex- 
cept in the patent townships, were appointed yearly, 
by the courts of general sessions of the several coun- 
ties, as they deemed necessary : one or more for each 
township or towm, or precinct without definite bounds. 
This was a common law power, held to belong to this 
court in England and in New Jersey, in all necessary 
cases, to prevent a failure of justice. 

A " Register and Calendar," printed at Philadelphia, 
for 1774, which contains a list of the British parlia- 
ment and ministry, and of the officers of each of the 
American colonies, states the officers of the Province 
of New Jersey to be as follows : — 

Governor, his Excellency, William Franklin, Esq. 

Lieutenant-governor, his Excellency, Thomas Pow- 
nall, Esq. 

His Majestj^'s Council, twelve gentlemen, named. 

Secretary, Maurice Morgan, Esq. ; deputy, Charles 
Petit, Esq. 

Note. — The council in their legislative capacity is 
a distinct branch of the legislature, in the nature of 
the House of Lords in Great Britain. 

Representatives in General Assembly, thirty gen- 
tlemen, who are named. 

Treasurer for East Jersey, Stephen Skinner, Esq. 

Treasurer for West Jersey, Samuel Smith, Esq. 



20 RESflXISCEXCr? OF XEW JTBsrr. 

Surrevor-creneral for East Jersev. the E. of Ster- 
ling. 

Survevor-^eneral for West Jersev. Daniel Smith, 

Airent in Great Britain. Benjamin Franklin. Esq. 

Attorney-general. Cortlandt Skinner. Esq. 

Court of Chaxcert. — - Chancellor, his Excellency, 
the Governor. 

Masters. James Hude, James Bowman, Joseph 
Reed. Esqrs, 

Registers. Josiah F. Davenport and John Smvth, 
Esqrs. 

Clerks. Josiah F. Davenport. Jonathan Deare, 
Joseph WarrelL .John Antill. Daniel Ellis. Robert 
Ogden, Esqrs. 

Examiners. J. Smyth. D. Ellis. Robert Stockton, 
Esqrs. 

Supreme Court. — Judges, Hon. Frederick Smyth, 
chief justice; Hon. Charles Read and Hon. David 
Ogden. Esqrs. 

Clerk.^ Maurice Morgan, Esq. ; deputy, Charles 
Petit, Esq. 

XoTE. — This is a court of king's bench, common 
pleas, and exchequer. The four annual terms begin 
on the second Tuesdays in May and November, at 
Burlington, and the first Tuesdays in April and Sep- 
tember, at Perth Amboy. 

^ Ukniice Morgva does not appear is said to hare been diief cook of tlie 
efcr to hare been in 3«ew^ Jeisev. ^s Dote of Newcasde. 



CHAPTER IL 

THE STATE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED IS' i:75' AND THE 
GOVERN3IENT UNDER IT. 

4 LARGE majority of the people of Xew Jersey 
-TX were resolute in their opposition to the tyran- 
nical measures of the British govemment, and de- 
termined to resist, if needful, by a resort to arms. 
Governor Franklin and most of the councilors, who 
held their appointments under him, were determined 
to adhere to the royal cause. But most of the mem- 
bers of Assembly, who had been elected in 1772. 
sympathized with the people they represented. 

Early in 1774, the Assembly, following the lead of 
Virginia, adopted a resolution for the appointment 
of a Standing Committee of Correspondence, and re- 
quested the Assembly of the other colonies to follow 
their example, and this they did. Massachusetts pro- 
posed that a general Congress should meet at Phila- 
delphia in September. Governor Franklin was re- 
quested to convene a meeting of the legislature for 
the purpose of appointing delegates to this Congress ; 
but he refused to do so. In consequence of this re- 
fusal, a meeting of the people of Essex County was 
held at Newark, in June, which directed a circular 
letter to be sent to the several counties, requesting 
delegates to be chosen, to meet a general committee 
at New Brunswick on the ensuing twenty-first dav 
of July. This request was complied with, so that a 



22 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

committee (as they styled themselves), composed of 
seventy-two delegates, convened at the appointed 
time and place, which passed resolutions condemna- 
tory of the proceedings of parliament, and chose five 
delegates to represent this colony in the proposed 
general Congress ; but they did not assume any of 
the powers of a legislative body. 

The General Congress met at Philadelphia in Sep- 
tember, as proposed, and after adopting various reso- 
lutions and addresses, resolved that another Congress 
should be held on the tenth of May, and that all the 
colonies in North America, should choose deputies 
to attend the same. The Legislature of New Jersey 
met at Perth Amboy in January, 1775, and passed a 
few laws. The governor in his message strongly con- 
demned the meeting of a general Congress ; but the 
Assembly, as the minutes say, by a unanimous vote, 
appointed five delegates, who attended the Congress, 
held in May, 1775. 

A committee of correspondence, appointed by a 
convention held in New Brunswick on the second day 
of May, appointed a general convention to be held at 
Trenton on the twenty-third of the same month ; and 
meetings were held in the several counties, which 
chose one or more delegates, — in one county as 
many as fifteen, — who met at the appointed time and 
place, under the name of a " Provincial Congress," 
and proceeded to aid the Revolution, now fairly com- 
menced, by assuming powers of government. 

This Congress adopted the form of an association, 
which was directed to be sent to the committees of 
correspondence in the several counties, to be signed 
by the inhabitants. It pledged every person signing 
it, under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 23 

country, personally and as far as their influence ex- 
tended, to endeavor to support and to carry into exe- 
cution, whatever measures might be recommended by 
the Continental and Provincial Congresses. Only per- 
sons sio-nino: this association were allowed afterwards 
to vote for dele":ates to the Cono-ress of the Province. 

A committee of safety was appointed, to act dur- 
ino- the recess of Cono-ress ; and such committees 
were afterwards continued, and met from time to time 
until a regular government was organized. They in 
in fact exercised powers similar to those assumed by 
the bodies of representatives that met under the 
name of Provincial Congresses ; derivino; their force 
from the active support of a large majority of the 
people. 

By the existing laws, elections for members of the 
Assembly were held by the sheriffs under the au- 
thority of writs issued by the governor and council. 
As these officers were appointed by and held their 
offices during the pleasure of the governor, it be- 
came necessary to provide a different mode of proced- 
ure. On the twelfth of August, 1775, the Provincial 
Congress adopted an ordinance, that the inhabitants 
in each county, qualified to vote for representatives 
of General Assembly (who were persons worth fifty 
pounds in real and personal estate), should meet at 
the respective court-houses, on the twenty-first day 
of September then next, and by plurality of votes, 
elect any number, not exceeding five, with full power 
to represent each county in a Provincial Congress to 
be held at Trenton, on the third day of October then 
next. The chairman of the meeting chosen by the 
voters present, and any five or more freeholders, were 
required to sign certificates of the election. It was 



24 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

also resolved, that a committee of observation and 
correspondence be elected in each county, with full 
power as well to superintend and direct the necessary 
business of the county, as to carry into execution 
the resolutions and orders of the Continental and 
Provincial Congresses ; and the inhabitants of each 
township were directed to choose a sufficient num- 
bers of freeholders, in March, yearly, to aid the 
county committee. By these means the government 
was to a great extent taken out of the hands of 
the officers holding under the king; and by the 
cooperation of most of the people, the committees 
thus chosen, arrested and imprisoned persons be- 
lieved to be disaffected to measures of resistance, 
or as they soon were called, the Tories; and they 
became, in most parts of the colony, the governing 
power. 

The ordinance of August was carried into effect ; 
delegates from each county were elected, and the 
Provincial Congress met at the time and place ap- 
pointed. This body enacted ordinances (so-called, it 
would seem, to distinguish them from regular laws) 
for organizing a military force, and for raising money 
by taxation, and these ordinances were submitted to 
and carried into effect by the people as of binding 
obligation. The regular legislature met in Novem- 
ber, 1775, for the last time, and enacted two or three 
laws ; but made no attempt to interfere with the pro- 
ceedings of the Congress. There were thus two dis- 
tinct bodies, claiming and exercising legislative pow- 
ers, and several members of the one were at the same 
time members of the other. The regular legislature 
was prorogued by the governor, until the third day 
of January ; but they failed to meet on that day 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 25 

Franklin then summoned them, by a proclamation in 
the name of the kino;, to meet on the ensuincr twen- 
tieth day of June. But the Provincial Congress on 
the fourth day of June, by a vote of thirty-eight ayes 
to eleven noes, resolved that the proclamation ought 
not to be obeyed. On the sixteenth of June they 
ordered the arrest of the governor, and he was taken 
into custody and afterwards sent as a prisoner into 
Connecticut, by order of the Continental Congress, 
where he remained a prisoner until regularly ex- 
changed. However hard this proceeding may seem, 
it was a necessary severity, justified by the special 
emergency ; and the effect was to put an end to 
the royal government, as was designed. 

The only persons entitled by law to vote for mem- 
bers of Assembly, were freeholders, and only such 
voted for the delegates to the Provincial Cono^ress. 
But as there were now many able-bodied inhabitants 
who were not freeholders, and whose services in aid 
of warlike measures were needful, this restriction was 
much complained of, so that after much discussion, it 
was resolved, on the sixteenth day of February, 1776, 
by a vote of nine counties in the affirmative, and four 
in the negative, that every person of full age, who 
had resided one whole year in any county immedi- 
ately preceding the election, and was worth a't least 
fifty pounds (one hundred and thirty-three dollars), 
in real or personal estate, should be admitted to vote. 
Subsequently, a regular ordinance was passed em- 
bracing this provision, and requiring all voters and 
office-holders to be persons who had signed the pre- 
scribed articles of association. This ordinance re- 
quired the elections to be held at the court-houses 
of each county, on the fourth Monday in May then 



26 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

next, and in subsequent years, to elect not more than 
five, and not less than three substantial freeholders, 
worth five hundred pounds (the value then of a good 
farm). It prescribed the manner of advertising the 
election, the officers who should hold it, and how it 
should be conducted and the result certified. 

According to the mode of proceeding thus speci- 
fied — which", except as to the presiding officer, was 
substantially the same as had long been practiced, — 
at the time of commencing the election, usually ten 
o'clock in the morning, the voters of the county who 
had assembled, chose a presiding officer. Unless a 
poll was demanded by a candidate; he took the sense 
of the meeting by naming the candidates, and requir- 
ing the voters to hold up their hands. If a poll was 
demanded, as was usually the case if there were more 
candidates named than the number to be elected, 
then each candidate who chose to do so, nominated 
an inspector and a clerk, and the voters severally 
named the persons they voted for, and the clerks 
wrote down their; names and recorded each one's 
vote. Generally the election closed the same day it 
was commenced; but if a majority of the candidates 
required its adjournment, the election might be ad- 
journed to another day or another place. As many 
of the voters were obliged to ride on horseback, that 
being the only mode of travel then in use, in many 
cases nearly or quite a day's journey, it of course 
often happened that a large number of the voters 
were prevented from attending. This mode of vot- 
ing prevailed until 1790, when a law was passed au- 
thorizinii: in some of the counties voting in the town- 
ships of each county, and with written or printed 
ballots; and in 1797 this law was extended to all the 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 27 

counties. Tlie change from a county to a township 
place of voting was undoubtedly a great improve- 
ment, and it becomes each day more and more evi- 
dent, that the election precincts require to be made 
still smaller. But it may well be doubted, I think, 
whether the boasted privilege of voting by ballot, is 
not rather a mistake than a privilege ; and whether 
it will not be well to return to an open viva voce vote, 
so that each voter's choice may be distinctly recorded. 
The frauds that are now so frequently perpetrated, 
would -thus be made more easy of detection. The 
purpose relied upon by the advocates of a ballot, of 
thereby enabling the voter to avoid the danger of be- 
ing subjected to the dictation of an employer or land- 
lord, amounts practically to nothing. The case of a 
secret vote, unknown to the bystanders, is a rare ex- 
ception to the general rule; and it is more than prob- 
able, that the practice of an open vote known to all, 
would tend to increase the independence and self- 
respect of the voter, and thus diminish the danger 
of his being influenced to vote otherwise than in ac- 
cordance with his own convictions. 

The Provincial Congress elected in May, 1776, in 
accordance with the ordinance of the previous Con- 
gress, convened at Burlington on the eleventh day 
of June, and an equal number of delegates being 
returned from each county, they voted separately. 
Agreeably to the recommendations of the Continen- 
tal Congress, they adopted a provisional form of gov- 
ernment for the colony. On the twenty-first day of 
June it was resolved, by a vote of fifty-four affirma- 
tives to three negatives, " that a government be 
formed for regulating the internal police of this col- 
ony, pursuant to the recommendations of the Conti- 



28 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

nental Congress of the fifteenth of May last." At the 
same thne five delegates were chosen to represent 
them in the General Congress, and they were em- 
powered to join in declaring the United Colonies in- 
dependent of Great Britain, and to enter into a con- 
federacy for union and common defense ; " always 
observing that whatever j)lan of confederacy they 
entered into, the regulating the internal police of this 
province was to be reserved to the colony legisla- 
ture." 

A committee of ten members, of which Rev. Jacob 
Green, a Presbyterian minister, who was a delegate 
from the County of Morris, was the chairman, was ap- 
pointed to prepare the draft of a constitution, on the 
twenty-fourth of June. Two days afterwards, the 
committee accordingly reported. Who was the au- 
thor of the draft does not appear. It has always 
been understood that the Rev. Dr. John Wither- 
spoon. President of Princeton College, took an ac- 
tive part in preparing it. He was a delegate to the 
Provincial Congress ; but having been appointed by 
that body a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
his name does not appear on the committee, nor did 
he afterwards vote on the question of adopting the 
Constitution. Two eminent lawyers, Jonathan Dick- 
inson Serjeant, and John Cleves Symmes, were on 
the committee ; but the instrument bears quite as 
prominent marks of a clerical as of a legal origin. 

The draft as reported, was referred to a commit- 
tee of the whole, and considered during the ensu- 
ing three days, but does not appear to have been 
printed. On Saturday the twenty-eighth, it was re- 
solved that Congress would receive the report of the 
committee of the whole on the next Tuesday, at 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 29 

which time every member was enjoined to be punc- 
tual in attendance. On Tuesday, July second, Con- 
gress resumed the consideration of the report of 
the committee of the whole, which (as the minutes 
state), after sundry amendments, was agreed to. 
Then "on the question whether the draft of the 
constitution, formed on the report of the committee 
of the whole, be now confirmed, or be deferred for 
further consideration ? " it was carried to confirm 
" now." The names of twenty-six members are re- 
corded as voting for " now," and nine " for defer- 
ring." 

On the next day, the minutes state, that " on the 
question whether the draft of the constitution be 
now printed, or the printing be deferred for a few 
days, in order to consider in a full house the pro- 
priety of the last clause containing the proviso re- 
specting reconciliation ? " seventeen voted for printing 
" now " and eight '' for deferring ; " less than the reg- 
ular quorum, but it had shortly before been resolved, 
that twenty should be a quorum for any business, 
except for the formation of the constitution. One 
thousand copies were ordered to be printed and cir- 
culated. No attempt was made to submit the adop- 
tion of the instrument to a direct vote of the people. 
Under the circumstances, it was probably wise to, 
omit doing so. It undoubtedly met the wishes, and 
received the hearty assent of all the inhabitants in 
flivor of an independent government, and it was not 
intended to harbor those who did not belong to this 
party. It was expected to be only temporary, but 
it continued to be acted under, and to provide the 
essentials of a good local government for sixty-eight 
years. It was indeed so popular, that it was only 



30 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

after several attempts that its defects could be par- 
tially remedied, by the substitution of that now in 
force. The Congress also resolved, " That in order to 
prevent a failure of justice, all judges, justices of the 
peace, sheriffs, coroners, and other inferior officers of 
the late government within this colony, proceed in 
the execution of their several offices, under the au- 
thority of the people, until the intended legislature, 
and the several officers of the new government be 
settled and perfected ; having respect to the present 
Constitution of New Jersey as by the Congress of late 
ordained, and the order of the Continental and Pro- 
vincial Congresses ; and that all actions, suits, and 
processes, be continued, altering only the style and 
forms thereof, according to the terms by the said 
Constitution prescribed, in the further prosecution 
thereof " 

Independence was declared by the Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia, two days after the adoption 
of the New Jersey Constitution. On the eighteenth 
day of July the Provincial Congress resolved that, 
" Whereas the Honorable Continental Cono-ress have 
declared the United Colonies independent States, 
we, the delegates of New Jersey in Provincial Con- 
gress assembled, do resolve and declare, that we will 
•support the freedom and independence of the said 
States, with our lives and fortunes, and the whole 
force of New Jersey." The* next day it was resolved, 
that this House from henceforth, instead of the style 
and title of " The Provincial Congress of New Jer- 
sey," do adopt and assume the style and title of " The 
Convention of the State of New Jersey." This reso- 
lution seems to have been deemed equivalent to a vir- 
tual substitution of the title "State," instead of" Col- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 31 

ony," as used in the constitution. The governor and 
the legislature, acting under its provisions, assumed 
the name, " State of New Jersey," and indictments 
were framed in the same way. Subsequently a law 
was passed directing that all commissions and writs, 
which by the constitution were required to run in 
the name of the Colony, run in the name of the State 
of New Jersey, and all indictments should conclude 
against the peace of this State, the government and 
dignity of the same ; and that all commissions, writs, 
indictments, before issued, preferred, and exhibited, 
which had the word State, and not the word Colony, 
should be and were declared to be, good and effectual 
in law. 

The Constitution thus hastily prepared and pro- 
mulgated, made as little change in the form of the 
government prescribed, as was consistent with the 
changed circumstances. The council, consisting of 
one from each county, and three members of Assem- 
bly, which number it was expressly declared might 
be added to or diminished by the legislature, were 
directed to be elected, that year on the second Tues- 
day of August, and afterwards on the second Tuesday 
of October, yearly ; — and the legislature so elected 
was to meet on the second Tuesday after the day of 
election, that is to say, in a fortnight after tlie elec- 
tion took place. The right of voting was left as it 
had been previously settled, to wit: all the inhab- 
itants of the colony, of full age, worth fifty pounds 
clear estate in the same, and who had resided within 
the county, in which they claimed a vote, for twelve 
months immediately preceding the election. Mem- 
bers of the Council were required to be worth one 
thousand pounds, and members of Assembly five hun- 
dred pounds each. 



32 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

In regard to this provision regulating the right of 
voting, it is important to notice that the same Con- 
gress which adopted the constitution, on the fifteenth 
day of July, enacted an ordinance, which prescribed 
the places of holding the elections in August, how 
they should be conducted, and the place for the meet- 
ing of the legislature ; and which contains this im- 
portant proviso: "That no person or persons shall be 
entitled to a seat in council or Assembly, unless he 
or they so elected, shall have first taken the follow- 
ing oath or affirmation, to wit, I, A. B., do swear (or 
affirm) that I do not hold myself bound to bear alle- 
giance to George the Third, King of Great Britain ; 
that I will not by any means, directly or indirectly, 
oppose the measures adopted by this colony or the 
Continental Congress against the tyranny attempted 
to be establislied over these colonies by the court of 
Great Britain, and that I do and will bear true alle- 
giance to the government established in this colony 
under the authority of the people ; and as it is highly 
reasonable, that the enemies of America should not 
be admitted to take an active part in our public 
measures, no person or persons shall be admitted to 
vote at the said election, unless he first take the 
same oath or affirmation, if thereunto required, by 
any one of the judges or inspectors of the said elec- 
tion, which oath or affirmation any one of the judges 
aforesaid shall be empowered to tender and adminis- 
ter to any or either of the said electors." And it 
may be noticed also that although females, who 
were worth one hundred and thirty-three dollars in 
their own right, were nominally embraced within 
the words of the constitution, this ordinance refers 
only to males, the word, being " unless he take the 
same oath." 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 33 

The governor, and all the other state, as well as 
many of the county officers, were directed to be 
chosen by the Legislature in joint meeting : the gov- 
ernor yearly ; the judges of the supreme court for 
seven years; judges of the pleas, justices of the 
peace, clerks of the supreme court and common 
pleas, and the provincial secretary and attorney gen- 
eral for five years each. Sheriffs and coroners by the 
people of the counties yearly, to hold however only 
three years successively. Township officers to be 
elected at annual town meetings. The governor was 
to be president of the council, having no veto and 
only a casting vote ; in his absence, the vice presi- 
dent of the council to exercise his powers. He was, 
as the governor of the colony had always been, con- 
stituted the chancellor and captain-general and com- 
mander-in-chief of the military force and ordinary 
or surrogate general. Any three or more of the 
councilors were constituted a privy council to advise 
him ; and the governor and council, seven whereof 
were a quorum, were to be the court of appeals, and 
to ^possess the power of pardoning criminals, after 
condemnation. No law could be passed, unless there 
should be a majority of all the representatives of each 
body personally present and agreeing thereto. 

The establishment of any religion was prohibited ; 
and provision made that no Protestant inhabitant of 
the colony should be denied the enjoyment of any 
civil right, and that all persons of the Protestant re- 
ligion should be capable of being a member of either 
branch of the legislature, and of holding office. 

All the laws contained in Allison's edition of the 
laws, which had then just been compiled and pub- 
lished by authority of the legislature, and which 



34 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

contained the titles of all the private acts and all the 
public acts supposed to be in force, were declared to 
be in force, excepting such only as were incompat- 
ible with the constitution ; and the common law of 
England, as well as so much of the statute law, as 
had been before practiced in the colony were to re- 
main in force, until altered by a future law of the 
legislature. The inestimable right of trial by jury 
was to remain confirmed as a part of the law of the 
colony without repeal forever. 

Every member of the council and Assembly was re- 
quired to swear or affirm, that he would not assent to 
any law, vote, or proceeding, which should appear to 
him injurious to the public welfare, nor that should 
annul or repeal that part of the third section in the 
Charter, which establishes an annual election of mem- 
bers of council and Assembly, or that part respecting 
the trial by jury, or that should annul, repeal, or alter 
any part of the eighteenth and nineteenth sections 
of the same ; these last being the sections in regard 
to religion. 

The concluding clause, so much objected to by some 
of the more ardent members of the Congress, was as 
follows : '^ It is the true intent and meaning of this 
Cono-ress, that if a reconcilement between Great 
Britain and these Colonies should take place, and 
the latter be again taken under the protection and 
government of the Crown of Great Britain, this 
Charter shall be null and void, otherwise to remain 
in force." 

It is declared by the first article of this constitu- 
tion, " that the government of this province shall be 
vested in a governor, legislative council, and Gen- 
eral Assembly." There is no reason to doubt, from 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 35 

the fact that the members of the legislature are re- 
quired to swear or affirm that they would not assent 
to any law altering certain parts of it, that it was 
then supposed, the government they constituted 
would be supreme in the sense declared by Black- 
stone in his Commentaries, then the text-book of the 
lawj^ers and judges, and might alter the constitution 
if not restrained. The principle now so well estab- 
lished, that a law not in accordance with the consti- 
tution is null and void, and must be so held by the 
courts, whenever the question is brought before them, 
had not then been recognized.^ 

In pursuance of this constitution, and of the ordi- 
nance to carry it into eff'ect, elections were held in all 
the counties, and the new legislature met in Prince- 
ton on the twenty-seventh day of August, 1776, and 
continued in session until the ensuing eighth day of 
October, On the thirty-first day of August, William 
Livingston was chosen by the joint meeting of the 
two Houses, governor, and subsequently the other 
officers. The State of New Jersey thus became an 
independent sovereign State, not in the absolute 
sense sometimes insisted upon, but substantially and 
relatively. The inhabitants declared themselves free 
from their previous allegiance to the king of Great 
Britain, and independent of him and of the parlia- 
ment ; but they were not independent of the other 
States, who were unitedly engaged in waging a war, 
to the hazard, as all knew and acknowledged, of their 

1 This question was agitated in the And although the doctrine was at 

case of The State v. Parkhurst, decided first disputed, it was not long before 

in 1804, in which Chief Justice Kirkpat- it became an acknowledged principle, 

rick delivered an able opinion, affirm- that no legislature can enact a valid 

ing the duty of the court to declare a law in conflict with the Constitution 

law void which was in conflict with of the State, or of the United States, 
the constitution. 4 Hals. Rep. 442. 



86 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

fortunes and lives. The independence declared by 
the Continental Congress, and recognized by the Con- 
gress of New Jersey, was, that the United Colonies 
were, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
States. 

The people of New Jersey and their government 
ceased to be a colony, and subject to the control of 
a foreign power, and assumed the most important 
rights and duties of sovereignty. They possessed 
and exercised the power of punishing as traitors all 
persons who resisted their authority. But from the 
beginning, they owed and acknowledged allegiance 
to the Continental Congress. As has been seen, the 
constitution adopted, was designed "for regulating 
the internal police of this colony." The delegates 
to the Continental Congress were empowered to join 
in entering into a confederacy for union and common 
defense, reserving only the regulating of the internal 
police of the province to its legislature. Before and 
after this confederacy was formed, and until the adop- 
tion of the Constitution of the United States in 1789, 
the individual inhabitants were not directly amenable 
to any laws of the Congress, which had no judiciary 
and no executive to declare or enforce such laws ; 
but they were willing subjects of the higher power 
of wao-ino: war intrusted to it. No citizen owed 
allegiance to the government of the United States, 
in the strictly legal and technical sense of being tried 
and punished as a traitor; and on account of this 
material defect in the confederacy, the laws of the 
several States provided for the judicial punishment of 
offenders against the laws of Congress. But had the 
authorities of any of the States undertaken to array 
the power of that State against the Continental Con- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 37 

gress, while the conflict with Great Britain was going 
on, the military force at the command of Congress 
would of necessity have been turned against the 
forces of the State, and the persons adhering to it 
would have been treated as rebels. Governor Frank- 
lin was not subjected to any judicial action ; he had 
violated no law ; but he was treated as a prisoner 
of war ; and had he been placed in the same situa- 
tion a century or two earlier would probably have 
lost his head. 

The colony of New Jersey, as well as other colo- 
nies, always exercised some sovereign powers ; but 
they were subject to the supreme sovereignty of 
Great Britain, and the proper limits of this sov- 
ereignty was the subject of constant dispute, and 
at length produced a war, which made them inde- 
pendent. From 1776 to 1789, as has been already 
remarked, some powers of superior sovereignty, im- 
perfectly defined, but real, were acknowledged to 
exist in the Continental Congress, wanting, as that 
body did, most of the attributes of a government. 
When the Constitution of the United States, under 
which it is our happiness now to live, was adopted, 
a government was established with full powers, and 
every individual inhabitant of the States was made 
personally subject to its rule. They became liable 
to punishment by means of a judicial proceeding, and 
it was declared to be treason, to levy war against 
that government. The several States were still left 
to be sovereign States, and as such may still punish 
treason against their separate governments. But 
over the subjects exclusively confided to the rule of 
the general government, embracing among them 
many of what may be called the higher attributes 



38 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of sovereignty, the sovereignty of the State is abol- 
ished. The sovereignty of this general government 
extends only to such objects as are in terms, or by 
necessary implication, expressed ; but over these ob- 
jects its right to command is absolute, and subject 
to no control but that provided in the Constitution 
itself Every citizen has thus become plainly subject 
to two distinct sovereignties, acting upon him indi- 
vidually, in respect to different objects, and he there- 
fore owes allegiance to them both ; that is to say, he 
is bound to obey their laws. 

It cannot be doubted, however, that many intelli- 
gent politicians have believed, and I suppose yet be- 
lieve, that a paramount allegiance is still due to the 
individual sovereign States, and that these States 
may discharge their allegiance to the Union by an 
act of formal secession. This opinion has evidently 
been founded on the notion that sovereignty, or the 
right of command, is of necessity one and indivisible. 
This was the teaching of the ancient Greek authors, 
and especially of Aristotle ; and as these authors had 
no conception of a government restrained by express 
limitations of its powder, and had no proper conception 
of a divine superintending Ruler of Nations, such a 
notion is not to be considered wonderful. But the 
wonder is that such views should be thought appli- 
cable to circumstances so radically different. It is a 
signal instance of the long abiding influence of wrong 
principles, when once adopted, as undisputed axioms. 
No State was ever sovereign in any such sense. Now, 
under the constitution, it is simply a question of in- 
terpretation. As was clearly discerned and stated by 
De Tocqueville in his " Democracy in America," our 
united government " rests upon a wholly novel the- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776, 39 

cry, which may be considered a great discovery in 
modern political science." It would seem impossible 
for language to make it plainer than that used in the 
remarkable instrument. It is not only declared that 
the constitution, and laws made in pursuance of it, 
shall be the supreme law of the lauil, but that the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any- 
thing in the constitution and laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding ; and that all the executive 
and judicial officers and members of the legislature 
of each State, shall be bound by oath or affirmation 
to support this Constitution. A supreme power is 
necessarily the judge of the duty of the inferior to 
obey, otherwise it could not be supreme. And to 
guard the citizens against any unconstitutional use of 
such a power, a supreme judiciary was provided, as 
independent of all undue influence as circumstances 
permitted, whose authority was made to embrace all 
cases in law or equity, arising under the Constitution 
or laws of the United States. 

That these provisions constitute the government 
of the United States the ultimate judge of all ques- 
tions arisino; between it and the o-overnments of the 
separate States, is too plain to admit of dispute ; and 
so far as this question is concerned, it is immaterial 
whether we regard the Union as properly a Federal 
Union, or as something entirely difi'erent. It is in 
truth a very complex Union, without any previous 
example in the history of the world : in some of 
its aspects a federation of sovereign States, in others 
a government over all the citizens. Some of the 
more candid advocates of secession admit the para- 
mount power of the general government over the 
governments of the States, and deny the power of a 



40 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

State, while remaining in the Union, to nullify the 
laws of the general government. But they insist 
that there is still an ultimate sovereignty in the peo- 
ple of each State, which is so supreme and incapable 
of limit, that they have the reserved right to with- 
draw from the Union at their pleasure, responsible 
to no other power than to the Supreme Ruler of the 
Universe, for the reasons they may deem sufl&cient 
to justify such a course.^ 

If this was put forward merely as a statement that 
for sufficient reasons, a people may be morally justi- 
fied in revolting against the established government, 
as our forefathers did when they cast off the govern- 
ment of Great Britain, it need not be objected to. 
Even a part of any State may be justified in doing 
this. The right, if such it may be called, is the right 
of self-defense, and paramount to all laws and consti- 
tutions. It is therefore no legal or constitutional 
right. It can never be exercised against the consent 
of the existing government, unless those endeavoring 
to exercise it have sufficient force to displace that 
government, and to deprive it of its power. The in- 
dividual actors in such cases understand that they go 
into the conflict in full view of the halter, and of all 
the other consequences of treason. It is a part of the 
divine government of the world, apparently necessary 
to prevent constant anarchy and confusion, that it is 
usually a hard thing to make a successful revolution. 
The theoretical line of distinction between secession 

1 This is the ground assumed by Al- The right of an oppressed people to 

exander H. Stephens, in his elaborate revolt, is taught and is set forth in the 

work, A Constitutional View of the Declaration of Independence ; but that 

late War between the States. (See State sovereignty is so indivisible in its 

vol. ii. p. 22.) He claims that his doc- very nature, that it cannot even bind 

trine is that taught by all writers, an- itself to a paramount power, is not 

cient and modern; but he cites none, taught by any writer of repute. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 41 

and revolt may seem very tliin ; but the difference 
practically is very great. Men will readily enter into 
measures considered legal and constitutional, who will 
start back with horror from enibarliing in a treason- 
able revolt. 

The defects of the State Constitution of 1776, were 
mostly on the popular side, and except the most pal- 
pable error of failing properly to separate the legisla- 
tive, executive, and judicial powers, so essential to 
every good government, they have, in my opinion, 
been very imperfectly remedied, by that adopted in 
1841. Instead of a tenure during good behavior, so 
important to secure an independent judiciary, the 
judges are still appointed for the limited term of 
seven years, and the office is thus made the coveted 
prize of party conflicts ; and the highest court is still 
encumbered with uneducated judges. But a still 
more important defect is that the governor has no 
effective veto. A bill which has been passed by cor- 
rupt means, will be pretty sure to become a law, in 
spite of the governor's objections, as has been more 
than once made evident. If anything can be said to 
be fully established by the experience of over a cen- 
tury, it is that in a democratic government, the legis- 
lative power is most to be feared, and most needs 
control. Our present constitution has interposed 
several important checks to improvident legislation, 
that were wanting in that first adopted ; but there is 
no reason to doubt, that sooner or later the people 
wiU demand and provide stronger restraints. 

Most of the laws enacted during the existence of 
the war were of a temporary character, relating to 
the organization of the militia, the laying and col- 
lecting of taxes, the issue and redemption of paper 



42 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

money, providing for its being a legal tender, con- 
tinuing the courts, the sitting of which was often in- 
terrupted, the definition and punishment of treason, 
and the forfeiture of the estates of persons guilty of 
that crime. An act was passed at the first session of 
the legislature, declaring that the several courts of 
law and equity of the State should be confirmed and 
established, and continued to be held with like pow- 
ers, at the same time and places, as they were held 
before and after the Declaration of Independence. 
And afterwards, to prevent all doubts on the subject, 
it was enacted that all the private acts (only the 
titles of which were contained in Allison's edition) 
before passed into laws by the legislature, except 
such as had become obsolete, or had been disallowed 
by the king in council, or had been repealed, or had 
expired, should remain in full force. 

Before and after the adoption of the Articles of 
Confederation, and prior to the ratification of the 
Constitution of the United States in 1789, a consider- 
able part of the state legislation grew out of the cir- 
cumstance that the State had become a sovereign 
power, and, so far as laws obligatory on individual 
citizens were concerned, independent of other gov- 
ernment. Some of these laws provide for punishing 
offenses against the confederacy, by counterfeiting or 
refusing to receive its paper money, and made that 
money a legal tender. By a law passed by the State 
Legislature in 1778, "the United States of America," 
were declared to be a body politic and corporate, in 
New Jersey, and capable of suing in that name for 
debts due to them. Attempts were made, in conjunc- 
tion with some of the other States, to regulate the 
prices of labor, and of many articles of merchandise, 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 48 

and especially of provisions ; but these like the Legal 
Tender Act, proved worse than useless, and were soon 
abandoned. 

Provision was made by the state laws for imposing 
duties on imports, and for enforcing those imposed 
by the Continental Congress, and for establishing cus- 
tom-liouses and naval officers. An act passed Octo- 
ber 5, 1776, authorized the governor and council, by 
ordinance and commission, to establish a court of 
admiralty, and custom-houses, with the necessary offi- 
cers, which was limited to one year, and in 1778 was 
continued, and supplied with a new act. No record of 
the ordinances or commissions are now to be found ; 
but it appears by numerous advertisements in Collins' 
"New Jersey Gazette," that in 1778 and 1779 a court 
of admiralty existed, of which Joseph Lawrence was 
judge, and afterwards J. Imlay ; and Joseph Bloom- 
field was register. The court is advertised to sit, 
sometimes in Allentown, sometimes in Trentoq, and 
in other places, to determine the cases of certain ves- 
sels named, which were taken from the enemy as 
prizes, and sales are advertised by John Stokes, mar- 
shal. 

It. appears by the case of Jennings v. Carson, in 
the supreme court of the United States, reported 4 
Cranch, 2, that the sloop George, and her cargo, cap- 
tured in the year 1778, by a privateer, was libeled 
and condemned by the court of admiralty of New 
Jersey, in October, 1778, from which sentence there 
was an appeal to the Continental court of appeals, 
established by Congress, where the sentence of con- 
demnation was reversed in December, 1780, and res- 
titution ordered. The vessel had been sold by the 
marshal of the state court for paper money, but it 



44 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

did not appear what had become of the money ; and 
the object of this suit was to render the owner of the 
privateer Uable for it, which, however, did not succeed. 

In 1782 a very carefully prepared act of the legis- 
lature was passed, regulating the proceedings in ad- 
miralty, and the fees ; and requiring the judge and 
other officers to be appointed by the joint meeting 
for three years. In cases of prize, capture, recapture, 
and seizure upon the water, an appeal was allowed to 
such judges as Congress had appointed, or might ap- 
point to hear appeals. One of the sections provides 
for a trial before a court of oyer and terminer, to be 
held b}^ virtue of a special commission before any two 
justices of the supreme court and the judge of ad- 
miralty, according to the course of the common law, 
of all traitors, pirates, felons, and criminals, who shall 
offend upon the sea, or within the admiralty jurisdic- 
tion. Whether any such court was ever held, I have 
not been able to ascertain. The joint meeting ap- 
pointed John H. Imlay, judge of the admiralty, and 
Joseph Bloomfield, register, and at the end of three 
years they were reappointed. Captures as prize were 
very infrequent after 1782, and the business of the 
court was probably not important. The papers and 
records of the court have not been preserved. After 
the ratification of the Constitution of the United 
States, which vested the admiralty jurisdiction ex- 
clusively in the courts of the United States, the state 
laws were repealed. 

After the peace, the people, who were greatly im- 
poverished, were clamorous for stay laws, as has been 
commonly the case in all similar circumstances ; and 
much hostility was shown to the courts, and especially 
to lawyers, who had to bear the odium of endeavoring 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 45 

to enforce the payment of debts and fulfillment of 
contracts. The prevailmg feeling was very much 
like that which existed in 1769, described in Judge 
Field's "Provincial Courts/' p. 165. Happily it did 
not assume the shape of an open rebellion, as it did in 
Massachusetts ; but it was very marked in many of 
the proceedings of the legislature. The popular party 
had the ascendency, and defeated every attempt to 
adopt a new constitution, or to amend that in ex- 
istence. 

Abraham Clark of Elizabethtown, a surveyor by 
occupation, and a strong-minded man, whose inten- 
tions appear to have been good, but whose prejudices 
were very strong, was the leader of this party. He 
was several times a delegate to the Continental Con- 
gross, and was one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. Being a member of the legislature 
of 1784, he was the main advocate, and had the rep- 
utation of being the author of a law which passed 
without serious opposition, entitled " An Act for Reg- 
ulating and Shortenino; the Proceedings of the Courts 

o o o 

of Law." It was known afterwards as Clark's law, 
and the spirit which produced it was shown by his 
declaration : '' If it succeeds, it will tear off the ruffles 
from the lawyers' wrists." 

But it did not succeed. Governor Living.ston 
describes it as prolonging, rather than shortening 
lawsuits. It had some good provisions, afterwards 
adopted with the necessary modifications ; but like 
all such attempts at reform, made by incompetent 
persons, the innovations attempted were too great, 
and rendered it incongruous to other provisions of the 
law. It was soon altered, and after a few years en- 
tirely superseded by the practice act of Governor 
Paterson, still the basis of our system. 



46 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

An anecdote of Clark was told me by Judge Rossel 
as having been received by him from Clark himself, 
which is perhaps worth preserving : " In the month 
of March, 1788, he was a member of the Congress 
from New Jersey, and boarded with a widow lady in 
New York, where Congress then sat, who lived in a 
very plain way. Sometime after dark, he was sit- 
ting in her little parlor, at a stand with a single tal- 
low candle, which was all the light in the room, when 
there was a loud knocking at the front door. It soon 
appeared that the French Minister had called in his 
carriage to pay his respects to the member of Con- 
gress. Mr. Clark met him at the door, and as he ad- 
vanced into the room, retired backwards toward the 
stand where he had been sitting. He then attempted 
to sit down in the chair he had left, but which the 
landlady, unperceived by him, had removed. Find- 
ing himself falling to the floor, he unconsciously 
seized the stand, upset it, and extinguished the light, 
so that his Excellency the Minister — for titles were 
scrupulously observed in those days — was received 
by a member of Congress lying on liis back, but hap- 
pily screened by total darkness. 

Upon referring to the journals of Congress, it ap- 
pears that on the fourteenth of February, 1788, it 
was resolved that the Count de Moustier be received 
as Minister Plenipotentiary from his most Christian 
majesty, and be admitted to a public audience on the 
twentv-sixth of that month. There being then no 
Executive, this was the ceremonial formally adopted 
by the Congress ; and it was also prescribed that after 
such a public reception, the minister should wait per- 
sonally on the members at their lodgings. On the 
designated day, the minister was personally intro- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 47 

diiced by a committee appointed for the purpose, and 
having; deUvered his letter of credence, he addressed 
Congress in a set speech', to which the President of 
that body made a reply. All this is formally recorded ; 
but the proceedings outside rest only in memory. 

Clark was a rigid economist, and a steady advocate 
of popular measures. In 1787, although known to be 
opposed to the new Constitution of the United States, 
he was appointed by the legislature a member of the 
convention of this State called to ratify it ; but ill- 
health prevented his taking his seat in that body. In 
1791 and 1793 he was elected a member of Congress, 
and died in 1794, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. 

By the terms of the State Constitution of 1776, all 
the inhabitants of the State, of full age, and worth 
fifty pounds, who had resided for twelve months in 
the county where they claimed a vote, were entitled 
to a vote. It is evident, however, that the Provincial 
Congress which framed this constitution, understood 
that it would be in the power of any subsequent leg- 
islature to restrict this privilege ; for they themselves 
enacted an ordinance, as has been stated, which did 
this, and the first legislature prescribed oaths to be 
taken not found in it. But it was not long before it 
was found that a diversity of practice prevailed in 
different parts of the State. At an election held in 
1806, for the selection of the county seat of Essex 
County, at which there was a warm contest between 
Elizabethtown and Newark, females and colored per- 
sons were allowed to vote, without inquiry as to their 
property ; some persons, and among them some fe- 
males, boasted that they voted under different names 
several times during the day and night the polls were 
kept open ; and the fraudulent voting was so great, 



48 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

that the legislature set aside the election. The fact 
disclosed by the evidence produced to the legislature 
in this case, occasioned the enactment of a new elec- 
tion law in November, 1807, which passed the Assem- 
bly by a vote of thirty-one ayes to five noes. There 
was at this time a majority of Democrats in the leg- 
islature, but it was not a party measure ; the leading 
Federalists in the body, including the members from 
Burliugton County, and the late James Parker of 
Middlesex, voted for it. The universal public opinion 
of the people sanctioned its provisions, which with 
but little change continued in force until altered by 
the Constitution of 18 i4, and the fifteenth amend- 
ment of the Constitution of the United States. This 
law commences with the following preamble : — 

" Whereas doubts have been raised and great diver- 
sities in practice, obtained throughout the State, in 
regard to the admission of aliens, females, and persons 
of color, or negroes, to vote in elections, and also in 
regard to the jnode of ascertaining the qualifications 
of voters in respect to estate ; and whereas it is highly 
necessary to the safety, quiet, good order, and dignity 
of the State, to clear up the said doubts, by an act of 
the representatives of the people declaratory of the 
true sense and meaning of the constitution, and to 
insure its just execution in these particulars, accord- 
ing to the intent of the framers thereof; " therefore, 
it was enacted, that no person should vote, unless such 
person be a free, white male citizen of the State, of 
the age of twenty one years, worth fifty pounds proc- 
lamation money ; and that in order to establish a 
uniform practice throughout the State, and to avoid 
all questions in regard to the qualification of the 
voter as to estate, every person in other respects en- 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776. 49 

titled to vote, who should have paid a tax, should be 
adjudged hy the officers conducting the election to be 
worth fifty pounds clear estate, and entitled to vote. 

It occasionally happened, however, that the officers 
of election disregarded this law, holding it to be un- 
constitutional and void, so far as it prevented aliens, 
females, and colored persons from voting. This hap- 
pened in at least one township in Cumberland County 
at a contested election for the place of erecting a court- 
house in the year 1837; and this in part produced 
what was called the broad seal war the next year. 
From 1809 to 1845 the polls were required to be 
kept open two days, and it was customary in the large 
townships to hold the election at different places 
each day. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOVERNORS DURING THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 
WILLIAM FRANKLIN. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 

TT71LLIAM FRANKLIN was the Governor and 
t T Chancellor of the colony of New Jersey at the 
commencement of the Revolution. He was the son 
of Dr. Benjamm Franklm, but not of his wife (who 
his mother was is not known), and was born about the 
year 1730, his precise age being left in doubt, and 
apparently for a purpose. Upon the marriage of his 
father when he was about a year old, he was taken to 
his home, and brought up as if he had been born in 
wedlock. His father had but one other son, named 
Francis Folger, who died when a. little more than four 
years old. William was carefully educated, aided his 
father in his philosophical experiments, and, through 
his influence, was at an early age appointed clerk of 
the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania, and post- 
master at Philadelphia. 

In 1756, when he was about twenty years of age, 
his father was appointed the agent for Pennsylvania 
(and afterwards of New Jersey) in England j and the 
son had leave from the Assembly to resign his office 
of clerk, that he might accompany him to London. 
Upon his arrival there he entered the Middle Temple, 
to prepare himself for practice as a lawyer in Phila- 
delphia, and was in due time called to be a barrister ; 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 51 

afterward he received from the University of Oxford 
the honorary degree of Master of Arts. 

Like his father, he became the parent of an illegit- 
imate son, born about 1760, and named William 
Temple Franklin, who lived with his grandfather in 
London, and afterwards in France, becoming a great 
fivorite with him, and as such remembered in his will. 
In 1762, William Franklin, v/ho had ingratiated him- 
self with Lord Bute, then the principal favorite of the 
king, through his influence, without the solicitation 
of his father, was appointed Governor of the Province 
of New Jersey, an office then much sought for. The 
first announcement of this preferment is stated to 
have been by a paragraph in the newspaper : " This 
morning, was married at St. George's Church, Hano- 
ver Square, William Franklin, Esq., the newly ap- 
pointed Governor of New Jersey, to Miss Elizabeth 
Downes, of St. James' Street." 

tfovernor Franklin and his wife arrived in the 
Delaware River in Februar3^, 1763 ; and reached 
Perth Amboy on the twenty-fourth of that month. 
He was received with the usual demonstrations of 
respect, had his commission publicly read, and took 
the oaths of office there. In a few days he proceeded 
to Burlington, and published his commission there, 
according to the usual custom. These two places had 
been the seats of the separate governments of East 
and West Jersey, under the proprietors, and after the 
two were united by the surrender to the Queen in 
1702, they continued down to the Revolution to be 
alternately the places at which the legislatures met, 
and the courts of the province were held. Congrat- 
ulatory addresses were made to him from all quar- 
ters ; and in June, with his wife, he was entertained 



52 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

by the corporation of Elizabeth town. He soon took 
his residence at Burlington, occupying, during a con- 
siderable part of his time, a house situate on the 
beautiful banks of the river there, where he remained 
until 1774, when he removed his residence to Perth 
Amboy, 

The task undertaken by a governor of one of the 
provinces of Great Britain was one of great difficulty. 
That government did not go so far as Spain in its 
suicidal policy ; but the only idea the king and his 
ministers and people had of a colony, was that it 
should be made to promote the real or supposed in- 
terests of the mother country. The welfare of the 
settlers, if regarded at all, was but a secondary con- 
sideration. Above all, they were expected to be en- 
tirely subservient to the prescriptions of the ruling 
power, and to dream of acting for themselves was 
treason. Where there was a local legislature, as in 
New Jersey, subject to the absolute veto of the 
crowm, and the assent of the governor w\as a neces- 
sary prerequisite to the enactment of a law, it was 
thought necessary to restrain him from the exercise 
of his own judgment, by the most precise and strin- 
gent instructions. Every measure, thought likely to 
interfere with that monopoly of trade claimed as the 
absolute right of the British, was absolutelj" prohib- 
ited. Even many of the offices of the colony were 
expected to be sinecures for the dependents of the 
ministry. 

A necessary consequence of this state of things 
was, that Franklin, like most of his predecessors, was 
engaged in a constant warfare with the Assembly 
elected by the people ; the council he could manage, 
their appointments being at his disposal. His posi- 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 53 

tion was probably very different from what he had 
expected. Very soon his difficulties were greatly in- 
creased by the persistent attempt of the king, and 
his ministers and parliament, to tax the people of the 
colonies, without the consent of their representatives, 
which they were resolute in resisting. He seems to 
have been an amiable man, and to have performed 
what he considered his duty, with so much forbear- 
ance and good temper as to have become quite as 
popular as any governor, who did not absolutely 
repudiate his instructions, could be. He was earnest 
in his endeavors to promote the welfare of the prov- 
ince, by recommending and encouraging measures 
for the improvement of roads, for the mitigation of 
the laws relating to the imprisonment of debtors, and 
for successful agriculture. He purchased and im- 
proved a farm, imported from England agricultural 
implements, and collected one of the best libraries in 
the province. He was a handsome and very agree- 
able man, abounding in facetious anecdote, and thus 
resembling his father. That father continued on good 
terms with him until the war was in active progress. 
In 1773, he wrote to him from London : "I only wish 
you to act uprightly and steadily, avoiding that du- 
plicity which, in Hutchinson, adds contempt to indig- 
nation. If you can promote the prosperity of your 
people, and leave them happier than you found them, 
whatever your political principles are, your memory 
will be honored." His last visit to him was after he 
removed to Perth Amboy in 1774. They then dis- 
cussed the controversy between the mother country 
and her colonies. They were far from agreeing. 
No man in America was more fully resolved upon 
resistance, at whatever cost, than the elder Franklin. 



54 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

The son, who disapproved the earlier measures of the 
British ministry, was still mindful of his oath as a 
royal governor; and remained a thorough govern- 
ment man, deeming the opposition of the colonists 
more mad than the measures of the ministry. They 
did not meet again until the lapse of ten years. The 
father, after the governor's arrest, sent the grandsoti 
to Perth Amboy, to aid and console his afflicted 
daughter-in-law, and a small sum of money. She 
returned a o-rateful letter of thanks ; but she never 
aLi;ain saw her husband or her father. Dr. Franklin 
felt the defection of his son from the cause he had 
himself so much at heart very keenly. He wrote, 
nine years later, " that nothing had ever affected him 
with such keen sensitiveness, as to find himself de- 
serted, in his old age, by his only son ; and not only 
deserted, but to find him taking up arms against him 
in a cause wherein his good fame, fortune, and life 
were all at stake." 

All the hopes, no doubt for several years fondly 
indulged in by Governor Franklin of the final success 
of the royal cause, were doomed to disappointment. 
He was arrested by order of the Provisional Congress 
in 1776, and confined as a prisoner of war. Had he 
lived a hundred or two years earlier, he would prob- 
ably have lost his head. He was not exchanged, and 
in that way released, until he had suffered an im- 
prisonment of two years and five months. In the 
mean time his library was burned by an accidental 
fire ; and his wife, who is represented as an elegant 
woman, amiable and intelligent, died in New York. 
He took up his residence in that city, remaining there 
several years, aiding the royal arms, as President of 
the Board of Associated Royalists, and by all other 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 55 

means in his power. In 1782, he returned to Eng- 
land, after a sojourn in America of twenty years. His 
son, William Temple, remained with his grandfather. 
Thus, in the language of Parton, " was the strange 
coincidence made complete : Dr. Franklin lost his 
son ; that son lost his ; both sons were born just 
before their flithers' marriage ; both were reared and 
educated in disregard of that circumstance ; both 
abandoned their fothers, at the same time and for 
the same cause ; afterwards they were both reccfn- 
ciled to their fathers, at about the same time, and 
in about the same imperfect degree." 

In consideration of the losses he had sustained by 
the confiscation of his property and otherwise, the 
British government granted to him eighteen hundred 
pounds, nearly nine thousand dollars, and allowed 
him a pension of nearly four thousand dollars a year, 
thus placing him, in a pecuniary point of view, in a 
better situation than if he had remained Governor of 
New Jersey. He afterwards married again, an Irish 
lady, and died in 1813, at the age of about eighty- 
three. He left no legitimate descendants. His son, 
William Temple Franklin, resided in France, wrote a 
biography of his grandfather, and died in 1823, at 
the age of sixty-one. 

The author of a work published in London in 1802, 
containing biographical notes of living characters, 
who professes to write from personal observation, says : 
" Governor Franklin, in point of person, is above the 
common size, with the eye and figure of a veteran. 
Although subject to the gout, he appears to be strong 
and athletic, and was accounted one of the handsomest 
men in America. He is now about sixty-five years 
of age, and resembles his father in a variety of partic- 



56 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ulars. Like him he is cheerful, facetious, admirably 
calculated for telling a pleasing story, and no enemy 
to social converse, hilarity, and the pleasures of the 
table, when indulged in moderation. Like him, too, 
he makes his ablutions every morning, and is equally 
partial to an air and a water bath." 

William Livingston. The first Governor of New 
Jersey under the Constitution of 1776, was one of a 
family for many years very distinguished in the his- 
tory of the United States, which of late years has 
ceased to be remarkable. He was the grandson of 
Robert Livingston, whose father was eminent in Scot- 
tish history, as a minister of the Kirk. After the 
restoration of Charles IL, father and son fled to Hol- 
land, and from there Robert came to America, about 
the year 1675, and in 1679 married Alida, the widow 
of Nicholas van Rensselaer, and resided at Albany. 
Having made large purchases of land from the Indians, 
the manor and lordship of Livingston was granted 
to him in 1686, and confirmed by royal authority in 
1715. It was the second largest of the five great 
manors granted in the province of New York, which 
in later days have been so fruitful of anti-rent troubles, 
and comprised nearly one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand acres of land, commencing about five miles 
south of the present city of Hudson, running twelve 
miles along the east bank of the Hudson River, and 
extending back to the line of Massachusetts. It 
was somewhat divided at an early period, but the 
greater part of it was ♦strictly entailed and transmit- 
ted through the two next generations, in the hands 
of the eldest son and grandson. Philip, the father of 
William, was the second son of Robert ; but the elder 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 57 

brother having died, he succeeded to the manorial 
estate. He married Catharine van Brugh, of a re- 
spectable Dutch family, at Albany. Their son Wil- 
liam was the fifth child, and was born at Albany in 
•the year 1723. In 1741 he graduated at the head of 
his class at Yale College. It is said that at that time, 
besides himself and three elder brothers, there were 
only six persons not in orders, in the province of 
New York, who had received a colleociate education. 
He studied law with James Alexander, at that time 
one of the most eminent lawyers in the city of New 
York, who was distinguished by his constant ad- 
vocacy of popular rights and steady opposition to 
ministerial assumptions. In a letter to his fotlier, 
dated in 1744, young Livingston says: "I have re- 
ceived your letter of November 21, whereof the first 
tv/o lines are, 'I am much concerned to hear that 
you neglect your study, and are abroad most every 
night.' As to neglecting my study, I am as much con- 
cerned to hear it as my father, having read the great- 
est part of this winter till twelve and two o'clock at 
night, and since I have had a fire in my room have 
frequently rose at five in the morning and read 
by candle-light, of which I suppose your informer 
(whatever ingenious fellow it be) was ignorant, as it 
was impossible he should know it without being a 
wizard. As to my being abroad almost every night, 
I have for this month stayed at Mr. Alexander's till 
eight and nine o'clock at night, and shall continue 
to do so all winter, he instructing us in the mathe- 
matics, which is indeed being abroad." 

In the year 1 745 he married Miss Susanna French, 
whose father had been a large proprietor of land in 
New Jersey. He was licensed to practice law in 



58 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

1748, and soon became a prominent member of the 
bar, and employed in most of the important legal 
controversies of that day, in New York and New 
Jersey. In 1752 he was one of the comisel of the 
defendants, in the great suit in chancery, between' 
the proprietors of East Jersey and some of the set- 
tlers, wdiich, although never brought to a final decis- 
ion, has been much referred to in reference to the 
title to a considerable part of East Jersey. 

He was brought up in the Reformed Dutch Church, 
and engaged earnestly in the controversies which 
arose with the Episcopalian party, in reference to an 
established relifj^ion. These controversies, in which 
the feelings of the Congregationalists and Presby- 
terians became so strongly excited, had much to do 
.with the resistance subsequently made to the attempt 
of the British ministry to impose taxes on the Amer- 
ican Colonies, and resulted in their unanimous sup- 
port of the measures adopted for that purpose. Liv- 
ingston engaged earnestly in this controversy, and 
wrote largely on the subject. He was fond of using 
his pen, and was distinguished for sarcastic wit. As 
early as 17'17 he published a poem of seven hundred 
lines, entitled, " Philosophic Solitude," which has since 
been several times reprinted, but is now seldom read. 
During most of the time he remained in New York, 
he wrote extensively on the political subjects of the 
day, and published a " Eulogy on the Rev. Aaron 
Burr" and various poetical effusions. 

In 1772, when he had arrived to the age of nearly 
fifty years, he removed to Elizabethtown, in the vicin- 
ity of which he had purchased, at different times, 
a tract of land comprising about one hundred and 
twenty acres, and which he had improved by import- 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 59 

ing and setting out various species of fruit-trees. 
After his removal, he erected a new house, in which 
he placed his family in the fall of 1773, and made it 
his home, except while obliged to be absent during 
the war, the remainder of his life. This place was 
generally known, while he occupied it, as Liberty 
Hall ; but after his death, it became the property of 
Mrs. Niemsiwitz, who was a Livingston (his cousin, I 
believe), the widow, first of Peter Kean, at one time 
cashier of the Bank of the United States, and after- 
wards of a Polish nobleman, a follower of Kosciusco, 
who resided for a time in this country, and was then 
called Ursino. It is now owned by John Kean, Esq., 
her o-randson. 

A statement of his property, drawn up at this time, 
valued it at £8,512, New York currency, about twenty- 
one thousand dollars, esteemed at that time sufficient 
for the comfortable support of a family. A memo- 
randum he afterwards wrote on this statement, is to 
this effect: " The sum at the foot of this, I \vas worth 
when I removed, besides leaving behind me £2,000 
due me for costs, and besides the land left me by my 
father. As I was always fond of a country life, and 
thought that at that time I could with justice to my 
dear children go into the country, where the interest 
of that sum would more than maintain me, I ac- 
cordingly went with the intention to lay up the sur- 
plus for their use ; but so it has fortuned, by the 
breaking of some of my debtors, and by others pay- 
ing me in Continental depreciated money, that I have 
not been able to answer that agreeable object ; and 
for those unforeseen occurrences, I hope my children 
will not blame me, having not spent my fortune by 
extravagant living, but have lost it by inevitable 
accident." 



60 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

As he had been admitted to the bar of New Jersey 
in 1755, and like other hiwyers in the adjoining prov- 
inces, had been more or less engaged in suits here, 
he still continued to practice his profession in a few- 
cases. Before his removal the public money chest 
of Stephen Skinner, treasurer of the eastern division, 
was broken open, and six or seven thousand pounds 
of paper and coins stolen. A majority of the As- 
sembly resolved that this had happened through the 
neyrlisence of the treasurer, and insisted upon the 
money being repaid by him. Although Governor 
Franklin warmly espoused the side of Skinner, Liv- 
ingston was consulted, and Skinner having after much 
delay resigned, a new treasurer was appointed and an 
action brought to recover the missing money. The 
action however was never brought to a trial. Skinner 
adhered to the British, and all his New Jersey prop- 
erty was confiscated and sold. 
) Livingston was appointed by the committee which 
met at New Brunswick July, 1774, a majority of whose 
members were also members of Assembly, a delegate 
to the Continental Congress, and was a member of the 
committee of that body, appointed to prepare the 
address to the people of Great Britain. He joined in 
signing the non-consumption and non-importation 
association, and fliithfully maintained the pledge. 
It is said some of the members of his family were 
accustomed in his absence to drink what they called 
"Strawberry Tea," but which was strongly suspected 
to be the genuine Chinese beverage. In January, 
1775, he was reelected delegate to the Congress by 
the Assembly ; and was a very constant member of 
the most important committees. He was a steady 
attendant, and was reelected a delegate by the Pro- 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 61 

vincial Congress in February, 1776, serving with 
Adams, Jefferson, and Lee on committees. In June, 
lie left the Congress at Philadelphia, to take com- 
mand of the militia of New Jersey as a brigadier- 
general, to which he had been some time before 
appointed by the Provincial Congress. 

He was among those — including, as is well known, 
many of the most determined Whigs — who doubted 
the expediency of the Declaration of Independence, 
at the time it was made. In a letter dated in Feb- 
ruary, 1778, he says : " As to the policy of it, I then 
thought, and I have found no reason to change my 
sentiments since, that if we could not maintain our 
separation without the assistance of France, her 
alliance ought to have been secured, by our stipulation 
to assert it on that condition. This would have forced 
her out into open day, and we should have been 
certain either of her explicit avowal, or of the folly 
of our dependency upon it." But he assumed a prom- 
inent military command, although he had no mili- 
tary training or experience. In another letter he 
says: '' We must endeavor to make the best of every- 
thing. Whoever draws his sword against his prince, 
must fling away the scabbard. We have passed the 
Rubicon, and whoever attempts to cross it will be 
knocked in the head, by the one or the other party, 
on the opposite banks. We cannot recede, nor should 
I wish it if we could. Great Britain must infallibly 
perish, and that speedily, by her own corruption, and 
I never loved her so much, as to wish to keep her 
company in her ruin." 

In October, 1775, he had been appointed by the 
Provincial Congress second brigadier-general of the 
military forces of the colony. General Dickinson 



62 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

being his senior. On the twenty-first day of June, 
1776, it was resolved that the President write to Gen- 
eral Livingston and inform him that it is tlie desire 
of Congress that he would take the command of the 
militia destined for New York. This he hastened to 
do, having his head-quarters at Elizabethtown point. 
His family were soon obliged to abandon their home, 
no longer a safe residence, and during the next three 
or four years, they resided at Parsipany. He was 
thus prevented from taking part in the Declaration 
of Independence. If he had remained a delegate 
to the Continental Congress, and been directly em- 
powered, as those designated for that jDOsition suc- 
ceeding him were, so to doj he would no doubt have 
signed that instrument, as they did. It appears by a 
letter he addressed to Samuel Tucker in August, that 
he somewhat resented appointing him to a command, 
which he says he plainly refused, instead of continuing 
him a deleo-ate to the Cono-ress. 

Resolute however in answering the call of his coun- 
try, even by accepting a situation for which he had 
no special fitness and very irksome to him, he dis- 
charged the duties thus devolved upon him with 
vigilance and ability. In a letter written in July to 
the Congress he says : " I must acknowledge to you, 
that I feel myself unequal to the present important 
command, and therefore wish for every assistance in 
my power." And in August he wrote to a Congress- 
man at Philadelphia : " I received yours of yesterday's 
date, just after I had got into my new habitation, 
which is a marquee tent in our encampment. You 
would really be astonished to see how grand I look, 
while at the same time I can assure you I was never 
more sensible (to use a New England phrase) of iny 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 63 

own notliingness in military affairs. I removed my 
quarters from the town hitlier to be with the men, 
and to inure them to disciphne, which by my distance 
from the camp before, considering what scurvy sub- 
altern officers we are ever like to have, while they 
are in the appointment of the mobility, I found it im- 
possible to introduce. My ancient corporal fabric is 
almost tottering under the fatigue I have lately under- 
gone, constantly rising at two o'clock in the morning, 
to examine our lines, which are — and very extensive, 
till daybreak, and from that time till eleven, in giving 
orders, sending dispatches, and doing the proper busi- 
ness of quartermasters, colonels, commissaries, and I 
know not what." 

He was soon relieved from his military command, 
and placed in a situation more cons]3icuous and more 
important, and to which, by all the habits of his life, 
he was better fitted. The first legislature under the 
new constitution assembled at Princeton, and on 
the 27th of August, 1776, the joint meeting pro- 
ceeded to elect a governor. The vote was by a 
secret ballot, and at first there was a tie between 
him and Richard Stockton. On the next day, prob- 
ably in pursuance of a previous arrangement, Liv- 
ingston was elected governor, and Stockton chief 
justice of the supreme court. Livingston accepted 
the trust, but Stockton declined. As the State had 
no seal, it was resolved that the seal at arms of his 
Excellency William Livingston, should be deemed 
taken and used, as the great seal of the State, until 
another could be procured. In a short time a great 
seal of silver was engraved in Philadelphia, having 
the devices still in use, and was lettered, " The great 
seal of the State of New Jersey," the word colony 
used in the constitution being entirely discarded. 



64 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

On the thirteenth of September, the governor made 
an address to the two Houses, in which he says : 
" Considering how long the hand of oppression had 
been stretclied out against us ; how long the systeni 
of despotism, concerted for our ruin, had been in- 
sidiously pursued, and was at length attempted to 
be enforced by the violence of war ; reason and con- 
science must have approved the measure had we 
sooner abjured that allegiance from which, not only 
by a denial of protection, but the hostile assault on 
our persons and properties, we were clearly absolved. 
That beino; thus constrained to assert our own in- 
dependence, the late representatives of the colony 
of New Jersey in Congress assembled, did, in pur- 
suance of the advice of the Continental Congress, 
the supreme council of the American colonies, agree 
upon the form of a constitution which, by tacit con- 
sent and open approbation, hath since received the 
consent and concurrence of the good people of the 
State ; and agreeably to this constitution, a legis- 
lative council and assembly have been chosen, and 
also a governor. Let us then, as it is our indispen- 
sable duty, make it our invariable aim to exhibit to 
our constituents the brightest examples of a disin- 
terested love for the common weal ; let us both by 
precept and example, encourage a spirit of economy, 
industry, and patriotism, and that public integrity 
and righteousness that cannot fail to exalt a nation ; 
setting our faces at the same time like a flint against 
that dissoluteness of manner and political corruption, 
that will ever be the reproach of any people. May 
the foundation of an infant State be la'd in virtue 
and the fear of God, and the superstructure will rise 
glorious and endure for ages. Then may we humbly 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 65 

expect the blessings of the Most High, who divides 
to the nations their inheritance and separates the 
sons of Adam." 

An expression in this address, it is said, occasioned 
the governor to be known for a time by the name 
of "Doctor FHnt." He was reelected the governor, 
from year to year, with occasionally slight opposition, 
as long as he lived ; and with an interregnum from 
August 31 to November 1, 1777, — during which 
time there was no governor, growing out of the fact 
that his term of office was one year, and the second 
leu:islature under the constitution did not meet until 
two months after his first term expired, — he held 
the office of governor and chancellor of the State 
nearly fourteen years. 

His task, especially during the first two years of 
his service as governor, was most difficult and dan- 
gerous. The State was in every part of it more ex- 
posed, and suffered more from military operations 
than any other. Within a few months after his in- 
auguration, the upper part of it was occupied by the 
enemy, and until the happy turn of affairs, occasioned 
by the victories at Trenton and Princeton, during 
the winter of 1776-77, everything was in jeopardy. 
Many who had been prominent in all the prepara- 
tions of resistance despaired of success, and took 
protections from the British officers. The legislature 
was obliged to meet sometimes at Trenton, and then 
at Princeton, at Pittstown, in Hunterdon Countj^, and 
at Haddonfield, and during several years occasioned 
much inconvenience by moving from place to place, 
sometimes for no better reason than because the 
members thouij-ht the charo-es for board were too 
hir»;h. The o-overnor stood firm, and was unremittint? 



66 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

in his efforts to procure the passage of efficient mil- 
itia laws, and in otherwise organizing a new govern- 
ment. 

One of the first laws enacted by the new legis- 
lature, September 19, 1776, for the security of the 
government of New Jersey, required every officer, 
civil and military, then in office or thereafter to be 
appointed, to take an oath or affirmation that he did 
not hold himself bound to bear allegiance to the 
king of Great Britain, and that he did and w^ould 
bear true faith and allegiance to the government 
established in this State under the authority of the 
people ; and provision was made in this and subse- 
quent acts for requiring jurors and voters and all 
others, under heavy penalties, to take the same oaths. 
An act was also passed to punish traitors and disaf- 
fected persons, which defined the crime of treason, 
and prescribed a punishment by fine and im^^rison- 
ment against all persons who should by speech, writ- 
ing, open deed or act, maintain and defend the au- 
thority, jurisdiction, or power of the king or parlia- 
ment of Great Britain. 

The Assembly convened at Burlington on the thir- 
teenth day of November, and passed one law, but on 
the second day of December, they dispersed without 
fixing upon any place of future meeting. But on 
the twenty-second day of the ensuing January, they 
assembled on the call of the speaker, at Haddonfield, 
and continued in session there until the middle of 
March. Here a law was passed, that a dollar in silver 
or in the paper bills of Congress, should be equal to 
and pass for seven shillings and sixpence. And what 
was still more important, an act was passed, tem- 
porary in its duration, but extended from time to 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 67 

time, constituting a committee of safety, consisting 
of twenty-three persons, — the governor or vice-pres- 
ident being one, — and declaring them to be a board 
of justices in criminal matters, and with power to 
fill up vacant military offices ; to apprehend disaf- 
fected persons, and commit them to jail without bail 
or mainprise, and to remove them from jail to jail ; 
to call out the militia to carry out their orders ; to 
send the wives and children of fuo-itives with the 
enemy, into the enemy's lines; to cause offenders to 
be tried in any county of the State ; to cause persons 
refusing to take the oaths to government to be com- 
mitted to jail, or to send them, if willing, into the 
enemy's lines ; to make any house or room a legal 
jail ; to negotiate exchanges ; disarm the disaffected, 
etc. This committee was of special importance during 
the two months while there was no governor. 

It could not be otherwise than that the governor 
of a State, situated as New Jersey w^as at this time, 
should be subject to constant alarm and danger. He 
was determined in his hostility to those who em- 
braced the cause of the enemy, and recommended 
and enforced the strongest measures against them, 
thereby of course exciting their bitter hostility. A 
letter from one of his daughters, dated in November, 

1777, says: "K has been to Elizabethtown ; 

found our house in a most ruinous situation. General 
Dickenson (an American general) had stationed a 
captain with his artillery company in it, and after 

that it was kept for a bullocks' guard. K waited 

on the general, and he ordered the troops removed 
the next day, but then the mischief was done ; every- 
thing is carried off that mamma had collected for her 
accommodation, so that it is impossible for her to go 



68 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

down to have the grapes and other things secured ; 
the very hinges, locks, and panes of glass are taken 
away." 

" Rivington's Gazette," the organ of the British 
party in New York, was very bitter in its denuncia- 
tions of Livingston. He is called the " Spurious Gov- 
ernor," " Don Quixote of the Jerseys," " Despot in 
chief in and over the rising State of New Jersey, ex- 
traordinary Chancellor of the same," " Knight of the 
most honorable order of starvation, and chief of the 
Independents." "If Rivington is taken," he wrote 
in 1780, " I must have one of his ears ; Governor 
Clinton is entitled to the other ; and General Wash- 
ington, if he pleases, may take his head." 

To counteract in some measure the influence of the 
royal gazette, a paper was commenced in December, 
printed by Isaac ColHns, sometimes at Trenton and 
sometimes at Burlington, called the " New Jersey Ga- 
zette." This paper was continued mostly through the 
war, and was essentially aided by the governor, who 
contributed many articles, which attracted much 
attention, and were of important service. Some of 
them were afterwards reprinted by Carey in his 
"American Museum." 

Popular as Livingston evidently was, he did not 
escape personal hostility and bitter opposition. On 
the 27th of October, 1779, just before his reelection 
by the joint meeting, a virulent attack upon him not 
by name but by plain allusions, appeared in Collins' 
gazette over the signature of " Cincinnatus." The 
council on the next day passed the following reso- 
lutions by a large majority, and sent it to the As- 
sembly for concurrence : — 

" Whereas, by a late publication, inserted in the ' New Jersey 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 69 

Gazette,' called, ' Hints humbly offered to the consideration of the 
legislature of New Jersey, in the future choice of a governor, 
signed ' Cincinnatus,' being apparently designed to have an undue 
influence in the ensuing election of a governor of this State, and 
though in an ironical way, fully and clearly implies, not only a slur 
upon the seminary of learning in this State, and the president and 
tutors thereof, but also a tacit charge against the legislature of this 
State, as being greatly deficient in point of integrity or ability and 
judgment, in the choice of a governor, and an express declaration 
against our excellent constitution ; and also an unjust, false, and 
cruel defamation and aspersion of his excellency the governor ; all 
which evidently tends to disturb the peace of the inhabitants and 
promote discord and confusion in the State, and to encourage those 
who are disaffected to the present government ; and notwithstand- 
ing the freedom of the press ought to be tolerated as far as is con- 
sistent with the good of the people and the security of the govern- 
ment established under their authority ; yet good policy as well as 
justice require that those who speak anything that directly tends to 
encourage the enemy and disaffected, and to discourage or disquiet 
the minds of the good people of this State, ought to be detected 
and brought to such punishment as may be agreeable to law and 
justice ; therefore, Resolved, that Isaac Collins be required imme- 
diately to inform the legislature of this State, who is the author of 
the abovesaid publication, and at whose request the same was pub- 
lished." 

This resolution was negatived in the Assembly by 
seventeen nays to eleven yeas. On the next day, 
however, the council " Resolved, that Isaac Collins be 
required immediately to inform the council who the 
author of the publication inserted in the ^ New Jersey 
Gazette,' No. 96, under the signature of ^ Cincinnatus ' 
is, and at whose request the same was published." 
A copy of this resolution was served on Collins, but 
he declined making any answer. On the thirtieth 
the joint meeting reelected Livingston governor, by 
a vote of twenty-nine in his favor, against nine votes 
for Philemon Dickinson. 

In consequence of this proceeding Livingston 



70 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ceased for some time to write for the " Gazette " ; but 
afterwards the breach was healed, and he continued 
his contributions. It is said by Sedgewick in his 
valuable and full memoir of Livingston, that he 
ceased for some time to write for the newspapers in 
consequence of the remonstrances of some of the 
members of the legislature, who considered such an 
employment rather undignified for his excellency 
the governor of a State. This is quite probable, 
especially as some of his articles may have been 
deemed rather personal to them. One of them pur- 
ported to state what the writer " had seen and had 
not seen ; " and bore with much severity on some of 
the legislative proceedings. Another article, entitled 
" Strictures of Liliput," not published, however, until 
after the peace, is so plainly leveled at the proceed- 
ings of the legislature of New Jersey, as to be worth 
perusal. It was republished in Carey's "Museum" for 
May, 1791. 

Of the date of 9th of October, 1778, he wrote to 
Laurens : — 

" Our assembly being dissolved by the constitution, and the act 
constituting our council of safety expired by its own limitation, I 
stand some chance of seeing my family at last, and perhaps the 
devil and the Tories may so manage their cards at the ensuing 
election that I may have no avocation to leave it in future. 

" Your Excellency has by this time seen (the last, I know not 
whether I can say, considering that some people make more dying 
speeches than one) but the second dying speech of the British com- 
missioners. Does not the very pomposity of the vellum, and the 
grandeur of the types and margin, strongly operate towards your 
conversion ? No ! well, I am sure the matter will not. 

" Thanks to their excellencies, however, for the quantity of waste 
paper with which they have furnished me, under the denominations 
of proclamations, and the excellent tape which surrounded the 
packets, of both of which I stood in most lamentable need. Con- 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 71 

ceiving that they would afford very little edification to the several 
bodies in this State, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, to which they 
were directed, I have made prize of almost the whole cargo, with- 
out any lawful condemnation of the admiralty, with felonious intent 
to convert them to my own private use. ills Majesty's arms, how- 
ever (having in days of yore heard so much about the Lord's 
anointed), I shall carefully separate from the rest of the sheet, and 
apply to the embellishment of my little grandson's kite. And O ! 
for the vellum original, signed and sealed with their excellencies' 
own proper hands and seals: I'll certainly lay it up in lavender, 
that if I am hanged at last, my latest posterity may know that it 
was through downright love of hanging, after having refused so 
gracious and unmerited a pardon on repentance, with so grim frown- 
ing a lion at the top, denouncing the royal vengeance in case of 
contumacy." 

Governor Livingston's peculiar fitness for the sta- 
tion in v^rhich he was placed, was shown in the circum- 
stance, very evident in the correspondence between 
them, that he had the most implicit confidence in 
General Washington. General Hamilton, while an 
aid of the latter, remarked in a playful letter to one 
of Livingston's daughters, refusing her application to 
obtain leave for some of her lady friends, residing in 
New York, to pass a short time with her in New 
Jersey, most truly : " I shall therefore only tell you, 
that whether the Governor and the General are more 
honest, or more perverse than other people, they 
have a very odd knack of thinking alike; and it 
happened in the present case, that they both equally 
disapprove the intercourse you mention, and have 
taken pains to discourage it." 

He was frequently appealed to, in regard to the 
enforcement of the laws of the State, making the 
Continental money a legal tender, and of course did 
so in all his official acts ; but he always opposed the 
passage of such laws, and would not avail himself 



72 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of them in his own favor. He writes : " No acts of 
Assembly have hitherto been able to reconcile me to 
cheating according to law, or convince me that hu- 
man legislation can alter the immutable duties of mo- 
rality." His strictures of Liliput were evidently writ- 
ten to disparage all such laws. He was also addicted 
to versifying, and wrote, — 

"For useless a house-door, e'en if he would lock it. 
When any insolvent legislative brother 
Can legally enter into a man's pocket, 
And preamble all his cash into another." 

As soon as peace was proclaimed, he left Trenton, 
where he had resided for three years, and returned 
to his house at Elizabethtown, rejoiced to be again 
able to relinquish his wandering life, enter again his 
deserted library, and employ some of his leisure in 
the superintendence of his garden and orchards. In 
a letter to his wife, dated in 1783, he had said : — 

" As to your opinion about disposing of our place at Elizabeth- 
town, I cannot think that I am under any necessity of doing it, 
because, though I have greatly suffered by the war, I have good 
estate left, if I can but get the time to put it in order. However, 
anything that may appear most advantageous to my children, I 
would readily consent to, especially for the sake of my two un- 
married daughters, whom I am determined not to leave to the mercy 
of an unfeeling world. But as to hiring a place, T should not like 
it, because in that case, if I should die before you, you would be at 
the mercy of a landlord, without a house of your own to put your 
head in." 

In a letter to the speaker of the Assembly, in 
1781, he had written : — 

"On being elected to the government in October, 1780.1 in- 
formed the then Assembly, by letter to the speaker, after having 
pointed out how greatly I had suffered in the payment of my 
salary by the depreciation of the money, that I accepted the ap- 
pointment for the then ending year, in confidence that, whatever 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 73 

the salary might be, the honorable house would make it good. As 
I never received any answer to the terms of the acceptance, I had 
reason to conclude that this silence evinced their acquiescence ; and 
as our legislatures are annual, unless each succeeding one thinks 
itself bound by the engagements of its predecessors, it is certain 
that all faith in government must necessarily be annihilated. And, 
indeed, had I made no intimation whatever on the subject, I can- 
not presume that the present legislature would think it reasonable 
that I should be paid the nominal sum stipulated, without any 
allowance for the depreciation of the money, which would in effect 
amount to a declaration that my services were not worth above four 
hundred pounds a year, and that such salary was a sufficient sup- 
port for any creditable family." 

The sum of £300, in state lawful money, less de- 
preciated than the Continental money, was added to 
his salary ; but altogether his salary and perquisites 
did not exceed one thousand dollars in specie. 

In June, 1785, he was appointed by Congress to be 
our minister at the court of Holland, and for several 
reasons was at first disposed to accept it ; but event- 
ually declined. In 1786 he became a member of the 
society in New York for promoting the emancipation 
of slaves; and himself emancipated the two slaves 
he owned, resolving never to own another. 

He was naturally much alarmed, as so many of the 
best and most ardent patriots of the nation were, for 
several years after the peace, at the gloomy prospect 
of our national affairs. In a letter of 1787, he says : 
" Our situation, sir, is truly deplorable, and without a 
speedy alteration of measures, I doubt whether you 
and I shall survive the existence of that liberty, for 
which we have so strenuously contended." In May, 
1787, he was appointed by the legislature one of the 
deleo-ates to the convention assembled to form a con- 
stitution for the United States, which so happily suc- 
ceeded. He took his seat early in June, and was a 



74 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

very constant attendant on its deliberations. Mr. 
Madison says in a letter on this subject : — 

" Mr. Livingston did not take his seat in the convention till some 
progress had been made in the task committed to it, and he did 
not take any active part in the debates ; but he was placed on im- 
portant committees, where it may be presumed he had an agency 
and a due influence. He was personally unknown to many, per- 
haps most of the members ; but there was a predisposition in all to 
manifest the respect due to the celebrity of his name. The votes of 
New Jersey corresponded generally with the plan offered by Mr. 
Paterson, but the main object of that being to secure to the smaller 
States an equality with the larger, in the structure of the govern- 
ment, in opposition to the outline previously introduced, which had 
a reverse object, it is difficult to say what was the degree of power 
to which there might be an abstract leaning. The two subjects, the 
structure of the government and the quantum of power for it, were 
more or less inseparable in the minds of all." 

He was amons: those who affixed his name to the 
draft finally agreed upon, and was a decided advocate 
of its ratification. 

In his message to the legislature in August, 1788, 

he says : — 

" I most heartily congratulate you, gentlemen, on the adoption of 
the Constitution proposed for the government of the United States, 
by the federal convention, and it gives me inexpressible pleasure 
that New Jersey has the honor of so early and so unanimously 
agreeing to that form of national government, which has since been 
so generally applauded and approved of by the other States. We 
are now arrived to that auspicious period, which, I confess, I have 
often wished that it might please Heaven to protract my life to 
see. Thanks to God, that I have lived to see it." 

The fixculty of Yale College, in 1788, conferred on 
him the degree of LL. D. The next year, he had 
the misfortune to lose his wife, with whom he had 
lived happily forty-five years. On the twenty-fifth 
day of June, 1790, he died himself He had thirteen 
children, of whom six died before him. One son, 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. . 75 

Brockholst Livingston, became a distinguished law- 
yer in New York, was several years one of the judges 
of the supreme court of that State, and from 1807 
until his death in 1823, one of the justices of the 
supreme court of the United States. 

The Rev. Dr. McWhorter of Newark, at his funeral, 
spoke of him as follows : — 

" Our governor was a person of inflexible uprightness and the 
strictest honesty ; an eminent example of virtue in his life and con- 
versation, as well as fixed and unshaken in his Christian principles. 
His religion partook not in the least of any deistic complexion, 
which is too prevalent among the greatest of our day. After the 
fullest investigation of the subject, he rested in the certain convic- 
tion of the divinity of Christianity. He obeyed its precepts, and 
experienced its power. 

" It is no uncommon loss that we this day mourn, therefore no 
common sorrow can be adequate to the gloomy, the dark and awful 
occasion. It is not a single family that this day mourns. It is not a 
single society, town, or county, but our whole land feels the stroke, 
and our bereaved State is most sensibly affected. The head, the 
guide, the director, and he who held the helm of our government, 
is no more." 

It was certainly a most happy Providence that 
gave to New Jersey, during the trying time of the 
Revolution, and for several following years, a gov- 
ernor so well fitted by his character and acquire- 
ments, not only to inspire the people with courage 
and perseverance, and to cooperate heartily with 
Washington, during all the changes of a war to which 
they were especially exposed, but to guide the legis- 
lature in the inaug^uration of a new and untried 
system of government. Chosen but for a single year, 
it was important to have a man of sufficient popu- 
larity to secure a reelection in spite of the cavils of 
those whose plans he found it necessary to oppose. 
With but the smallest amount of power or patronage. 



76 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and besides his important judicial functions as chan- 
cellor and ordinary, being only the presiding officer 
of the legislative council, with only a casting vote, it 
was equally important to have a man of decided re- 
publican principles and of sound legal attainments, 
that he might exercise a salutary influence over legis- 
lation, so liable to take a wrong direction. All these 
qualities were combined in Livingston ; and although 
his writings show how much he was dissatisfied with 
those Icirislative measures which interfered so wrong- 
fully between debtor and creditor, it is evident from 
an inspection of the statutes, enacted while he was 
governor, that many of the most important of them 
were drawn by him, or underwent his careful revision. 
And it was fortunate, too, that he was succeeded by 
an equally well-informed and able lawyer ; and that 
thus it has happened that no State of the Union 
started in the career of independent sovereignty 
with a code of laws so nearly perfect, and so well 
adapted to secure to the people vigorous and safe 
progress ; and an administration of justice, pure and 
enlightened, upon which the suspicion of a corrupt 
taint has never fallen. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GOVERNORS AFTER THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 
WILLIAM PATERSON. RICHARD HOWELL. 

WILLIAM PATERSON, Governor from 1790 to 
1793, was a native of the north of Ireland, 
from whence he came with his father in the year 
1747, when he was about two years old. They lived 
at Trentown, as the place was then called, at Prince- 
town, and finally at Raritan, now Soinerville, where 
his father died in 1781. William graduated at 
Princeton in 1763, and then studied law with Rich- 
ard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, Jonathan Dickerson Sei/eant being 
a fellow student. He received his license as an at- 
torney in 1769, and settled for a short time in Hun- 
terdon County, at a place then called New Bromley. 
He passed, however^ some part of his time with his 
father at Princeton, and took a part with him and 
his brother in mercantile business. 

In 1775 he was chosen one of the delegates from 
the County of Somerset to the Provincial Congress, 
which met in May, and was appointed one of the as- 
sistant secretaries of that body ; and upon Mr. Ser- 
jeant being elected treasurer of the province, and 
resigning his appointment as secretary, Paterson was 
chosen his successor. At the meeting of the Congress 
in October, he was again appointed secretary. He 



78 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was also a delegate to the Congress which met at Bur- 
lington in June, 1776, and was again unanimously 
chosen secretary. The journal of that body shows 
that he voted with the majority on the second day 
of July for then confirming the draft of the Constitu- 
tion of the State ; but on the next day he voted with 
Frelinghuysen and Serjeant for deferring the printing 
a few days in order to'reconsider, in a full house, the 
propriety of the last clause, containing the proviso 
respecting reconciliation. He was one of those who 
considered it as a temporary expedient, and, some 
years after the peace, wrote and published several 
articles in favor of revising it. 

Upon the organization of the state government in 
1776, Paterson was selected for the important station 
of attorney-general, he being at the time a member 
of the legislative council. His duties in this office 
were difficult and arduous. It became necessary for 
him to attend the criminal courts in the different 
counties, at a time when the armies of a hostile power 
were frequently invading the State, and the only 
means of communication were by long and painful 
journeys, mostly on horseback. He appears to have 
resided at Raritan, where, in 1779,»he married his first 
wife. It appears by a letter he wrote to Governor 
Livingston in August, 1777, that a court was held in 
Newark. He says : " I am amazed that the Congress 
do not act agreeably to their resolution, and push into 
exercise the law of retaliation. We deserve to be in- 
sulted, because we bear it. If we were to treat the 
soldiers of the enemy, who are prisoners with us, in 
the same manner that they treat our soldiers, who are 
prisoners with them, it would soon produce a mild and 
humane course of conduct. All the Jersey officers 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 79 

who have been taken by the enemy are now in the 
Provost, and treated in the most severe and barbarous 
manner. Perhaps a letter from your excellency and 
the council, addressed to Congress, might be produc- 
tive of the happiest effect. Mr. Justice Smith arrived 
at this place yesterday about noon. The chief jus- 
tice and Mr. Smith agreed that it would be improper 
to hold the next supreme court at Amboy, and I 
make no doubt your excellency will be of the same 
opinion. I wish that your excellency and the privy 
council would direct an ordinance to be made out 
altering the place, but not the time of holding court. 
I requested the judges to give their opinions respect- 
ing the most proper place to have it held ; and, on 
considering the matter, they agreed that Princeton, 
which lies in the eastern division, would be the most 
proper place. The supreme court will come on the 
first Tuesday of next month." Under the colonial 
government, the governor and council appointed the 
times and places of holding the courts by ordinance, 
and issued commissions of oyer and terminer, — a 
practice which, of necessity, seems to have been for 
some years followed by the governor and council 
under the constitution. 

In December, 1780, the attorney-general writes 
to Mr. Stevens, speaker of the Assembly, as follows : 
" On my return from Sussex Court I met with your 
letter, which notifies me of my being in the delega- 
tion of Congress. The appointment was unexpected, 
especially as some of the gentlemen of the legislature 
were fully possessed of my sentiments on the oc- 
casion. From the commencement of this contest I 
have held myself bound to serve the public in any 
station in which my fellow-citizens might place me, 



80 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and it is therefore with regret that I find myself under 
the necessity of declining the present appointment. 
I look upon it, however, as an act of justice to my- 
self, as well as of respect to your honorable body, to 
declare that my non-acceptance of the delegacy is 
owing to its interference with my official duty in 
another line. The business of a criminal nature in 
this State is at present intricate and extensive ; it un- 
avoidably occupies the far greater part of my time. 
I feel its weight, and have more than once been ready 
to sink under it. Of the business of Congress, its 
variety, extent, and importance, I shall forbear to 
speak. Viewing these offices as 1 do, I am convinced 
that no one man can execute them both at the same 
time. If he can acquit himself well in one of them 
at once, it is full as much as can reasonably be ex- 
pected. I am sure I shall count it one of the happiest 
circumstances of my life, if, in the execution of my 
present trust alone, I can give satisfaction to the 
public under which I act." 

The members of the Continental Congress, for the 
first two or three years of the war, consisted of the 
leading spirits from the different colonies, who were 
justly the admiration of the best men in Great 
Britain and on the continent ; and by their measures 
and addresses they gave a character to the Revolu- 
tion which procured for them the support they so 
much needed. But after the state governments were 
formed, and the war was in full progress, so many of 
the best men were withdrawn from Congress as to 
excite the fears of careful observers. This was indeed 
one of the causes of the little success of the confedera- 
tion. It was with the greatest difficulty that a quorum 
of Congress could be kept in session; and they failed, 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 81 

when they met, to command the respect of the people. 
John Adanis, in one of his letters, remarks of the 
members, -'that a large part of them were unworthy 
of confidence." 

Paterson was reelected at the end of his first term, 
but upon the return of peace in 1783 he resigned 
this appointment, and resumed* his practice as a 
lawyer, taking up his residence in New Brunswick, 
where he continued to reside until his death. The 
Rev. Mr. Clark, inlnister of the Presbyterian Church 
which he attended, says of him in his funeral sermon : 
" I need not remind you of his virtues as the citizen 
and the friend, and how they adorned his character 
in the walks of piivate life, or amid the more secluded 
retreat of the domestic circle and the home lireside. 
You knew him well, and the grief you manifest for 
his loss is the best evidence how affectionately you 
regard his virtuous example, his distinguished pru- 
dence, his love of justice, his fidelity in friendship, his 
readiness to oblige, his kindness to the poor, his gen- 
erous hospitality, and the dignity of his deportment, 
tempered with the mildness of the amiable citizen, 
the agreeable, the interesting, and the instructive 
companion." 

During the war the great defects of the articles of 
confederation were apparent; but upon the establish- 
ment of peace they became so manifest as to excite 
the apprehensions of the most intelligent and patriotic 
citizens throughout the different States. The legis- 
lature of New Jersey, as early as 1783, had sent a 
representation to the Congress, pointing out some of 
these defects, and containing the most just and en- 
lightened views respecting a federal compact, in ad- 
vance, indeed, of those then generally j^revailing. 

6 



82 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

They especially objected to the articles by which the 
regulation of trade and commerce was committed to 
the several States within their respective jurisdictions. 
They say, " We are of opinion that the sole and ex- 
clusive power of regulating the trade of the United 
States with foreign nations ought to be clearly vested 
in the Congress ; and that the revenue arising from 
all duties and customs imposed thereon, ought to be 
appropriated to the building, equipping, and manning 
a navy for the protection of the trade and defense of 
the coasts, and to such other public and general pur- 
poses, as to the Congress shall seem proper, and for 
the common benefit of the States." Several other 
defects were pointed out, the most important of which 
was that the vacant and unpatented lands, commonly 
called the crown lands, within the limits of the States, 
which had been conquered by the prosperous issue 
of a war undertaken for the general defense and in- 
terest of the confederating colonies, were not author- 
ized to be disposed of for defraying the expenses of 
the war and other public and general purposes. 

After various efforts in the Confederate Congress 
to induce the States to give their delegates authority 
to grant additional powers to that body, Virginia took 
the lead in calling a convention to propose amend- 
ments, which resulted in a meeting of commissioners 
from five States, of which New Jerse}^ was one, in 
September, 1786. This convention recommended to 
the several States to send delegates to meet in Phil- 
adelphia in the succeeding May, and sent copies of its 
proceedings to the respective legislatures and to the 
Congress. Congress resolved that, in its opinion, 
such a convention should be held for '' the sole and 
express purpose of revising the articles of confedera- 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 83 

tion, and reporting to Congress and the several legis- 
latures such alterations and provisions therein as 
shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by 
the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate 
to the exigencies of government and the preservation 
of the Union." 

The legislature of New Jersey approved the plan 
as early as November, 1786, and sent as commis- 
sioners David Brearly, chief justice ; William. C. Hous- 
ton, William Paterson ; William Livingston, governor ; 
Abraham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton. Clark was 
prevented by ill health from attending ; the others, 
except Houston, took part in the proceedings, and 
eventually signed the -constitution agreed upon. They 
were undoubtedly the first men of the State in char- 
acter and attainments ; and Paterson seems to have 
been their leader. Seldom, indeed, if ever, in the 
history of the world, has a body of men assembled 
superior in ability and acquirements to the conven- 
tion which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, and 
concluded its labors by promulgating the Constitution 
of the United States on the seventeenth of the suc- 
ceeding September. General Washington, a com- 
missioner from Virginia, was unanimously chosen as 
president. 

Two plans were submitted to the convention, which 
for some time formed the basis of the discussion. One 
by Edmond Randolph of Virginia was referred to as 
the Virginia plan, and proposed in substance a na- 
tional government, and received the support of the 
larger States. The other was offered some days later 
by Paterson, was called the New Jersey plan, and was 
substantially concurred in by the smaller States, of 
which New York was then reckoned one, the others 



84 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

being Delaware and Maryland. The object of this 
plan was to preserve the state sovereignties, while 
sufficient power was given to the general government 
to enable it to provide for the common defense and 
general welfiire. This plan appears to have received 
the support of all the commissioners from New Jersey. 
The result was a most happy compromise, by wliich 
there was formed what was properly termed by Mr. 
Ellsworth, a " general government, partly federal and 
partly national." His remarks on this question were 
forcible and just. He had moved that in the senate 
each State should have an equal vote, and said : 
" This will secure tranquillity, and will make it ef- 
fectual ; and it will meet the objections of the larger 
States. In taxes, they will have a proportional weight 
in the first branch of the leorislature. If the ijrreat 
States refuse this plan, we shall be forever sepa- 
rated. If all the States are to exist, they must neces- 
sarily have an equal vote in the general government. 
Small communities, when associating with greater, 
can only be supported by an equality of votes. I 
have always found in my reading and experience, 
that in all societies the o-overnors are ever risinsc 
into power." 

After a full and earnest discussion in whicli the 
leading men from the different States participated, the 
question of representation, the most vital of all, was 
referred to a committee of one from each State, in 
which Paterson represented New Jersey, which agreed 
upon a report that was finally adopted in substance, 
and thus New Jersey preserved her integrity ; and the 
plan received the sanction of all the States, a result 
which there is no reason to believe would have fol- 
lowed any plan radically different. Mr. Paterson 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 8o 

said emphatically and truly in the convention, " thir- 
teen sovereign and independent States could never 
form one nation, and that New Jersey would not have 
sent delegates to any assembly that would destroy 
the equalities or rights of the States." Fortunately 
a spirit of harmony and conciliation overruled the 
final deliberations of the convention, and the plan 
adopted received the signature of thirty-eight out of 
the fiftj'-five delegates, including all that attended 
from New Jersey. A few of those who did not sign 
were in favor of it, but were necessarily absent when 
it was finally adopted. 

The convention recommended that the constitution 
should be committed to State conventions, and that 
as soon as the same should be ratified by the requisite 
number, namely, nine States, Congress should take 
measures for the election of a president, and fix the 
time for commencing proceedings under it. This was 
complied with ; the State of New Hampshire making 
the ninth having ratified it, in June, 1788, Congress 
passed an act that electors of president and vice- 
president would be chosen on the first Wednesday 
of January, 1789, and that on the first Wednesday, 
the fourth of March ensuing, the new government 
should commence. 

There was no organized opposition to the adoption 
of this constitution in New Jersey, it being very ap- 
parent that the Anti-federalists, as they were then 
called, w^ere few^ and without influence. It may be 
remarked in passing, that for several years the term 
Federalist was used to designate a person favorable to 
the new constitution, the government it established 
being commonly and rightly considered as a federal 
go\^ernment, although it would seem now that many 



86 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

are disposed to overlook this important feature of the 
system, and to regard its national characteristics as 
most entitled to favor. When the two opposing 
political parties came to be fully developed during the 
administration of John Adams, his supporters called 
themselves Federalists, and those favorable to the 
election of Jefferson called themselves Republicans, 
the term Democrats being applied to them by their 
opponents, but soon adopted and still used by the 
party claimed still to exist under that name. 

New Jersey was the third State to ratify the new 
constitution. The convention elected for the purpose 
met on the eleventh day of December, 1789, and re- 
solved unanimously to ratify and confirm it. The 
members of the convention then marched in pro- 
cession to the court-house, and the ratification was 
proclaimed to the people. Subsequently several 
amendments were proposed by Congress, and ten were 
ratified by three fourths of the States in 1791, and 
another, the eleventh, in 1798, produced by a decision 
of the supreme court, that citizens could maintain 
suits against the States. The twelfth was ratified in 
1804. Three others, making fifteen in all, which 
grew out of the late rebellion, have been since rati- 
fied. Some of the provisions of these last are plainly 
desirable amendments, while others are much more 
questionable. But however that may be, it is cer- 
tainly greatly to be lamented that it should have 
been thought necessary to secure the assent of the 
requisite number of States by a species of coercion 
now for the first time adopted. It will be a new 
experience in political affairs, if in the end the fed- 
eral government is not sensibly weakened, instead of 
receivino- strength from changes so introduced. 



WILLIAM PATEESON. 87 

Mr. Paterson was chosen by the legislature of 
New Jersey, as he well deserved to be, one of the 
senators of th& United States; Jonathan Elmer, of 
Bridgeton, Cumberland County, being his colleague. 
He first took his seat on the nineteenth day of 
March, 1789 > but a quorum did not appear, so that 
the bo'dy could be organized, until the sixth day of 
April. He was, as a matter of course, a prominent 
member of that body. He was one of the tellers, to 
count the electoral votes, and chairman of the com- 
mittee to prepare the certificates of the election, and 
to certify the elected officers. His most important 
position was as a member of the committee on the 
judiciary, upon whom the important duty was de- 
volved of giving efficacy to the federal courts. No 
act of the first Congress was more important or more 
difficult to frame than the act to establish the judi- 
cial system of the United States. It required, and 
happily it received, the earnest attention and deliber- 
ation of men fully acquainted with the judicial sys- 
tems of Great Britain and the several colonies of 
America, imbued with sound principles of jurispru- 
dence, and who perfectly understood the purposes 
designed by the necessarily general language of the 
constitution ; and they produced a system not in- 
deed perfect, but the substantial principles of which 
still regulate this department of the government, 
and still command the approbation of those best 
qualified to understand its merits. While it properly 
maintains the supremacy of the laws of the United 
States, within their designated sphere, it carefully ab- 
stains from unnecessary interference with the judicial 
tribunals of the States. In a speech delivered by 
Mr. Paterson, advocating the law proposed, he gave 



88 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

a definition of the federal government, in harmony 
with the sentiments he had expressed in the conven- 
tion. He asks : " What are we ? Of what do we con- 
sist ? Of what materials compounded ? We are a 
number of free republics, confederated together and 
forming a social league. United we have a head, sep- 
arately we have a head, each operating on different 
objects. When we act in union, we move in one 
sphere ; when we act separately we act in another, 
totally distinct and apart. God grant they may 
always remain so." Although he here spoke of the 
Union, as for some purposes a league, the provisions 
of the act he was advocating, which gives to the 
supreme court power to revise and annul the decis- 
ions of the highest courts of the several States, 
in cases involving the construction of the constitu- 
tion or laws of the Union, prove that he gave no 
sanction to the unfounded inference that the States 
held a reserved riirht to secede from the Union at 
their own pleasure. 

Upon the death of Governor Livingston, in 1790, 
Paterson was chosen by the legislature to succeed 
him, and resigned his commission as senator to ac- 
cept the appointment of governor and chancellor 
of the State. In this important office he met the just 
expectations of the people, and was at the end of his 
first year reelected without serious opposition. 

While lie held this appointment, he commenced a 
work which he continued for several years, after he 
left it for another, and which he finished in 1800, and 
for the accomplishment of which he proved to be 
especially qualified. In November, 1792, a law was 
passed, providing that his Excellenc}-, William Pater- 
son, should be appointed and authorized to collect 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 89 

and reduce into proper form, under certain beads or 
titles, all the statutes of England or Great Britain, 
which before the Revolution Avere practiced, and 
which by the constitution extend to this State ; as 
also all the public acts which had been passed by the 
legislature of this State, both before and after the 
Revolution, which remain in force, which said bills, 
as soon as the whole should be completed, he should 
lay before the legislature, to be by them, if approved, 
enacted into laws. Other provisions of the act were 
that he should cause the w^ork, when completed, to 
be printed, and comprise in it the titles of all acts 
that had been passed. The design evidently was, to 
have a compilation similar to that previously so well 
prepared by Samuel Allinson, and that, besides add- 
ing all the new acts, he should embrace in it all the 
British acts in force that should be deemed important 
for the judiciary system of the State. 

This important work he entered upon, departing, 
however, from the plan at first proposed, probably 
as well because his duties as judge soon interrupted 
his labors, and because it was more convenient to 
the legislature to act upon the newly prepared stat- 
utes from time to time, rather than to undertake 
such a work at one sitting. He continued to revise, 
and, so far as necessary, to remodel the British stat- 
utes proper to be reenacted, during the succeeding 
five or six years ; and they were from time to time 
enacted by the legislature as a part of the statute law 
of the State. By an act passed in 1793, he was au- 
thorized to modify and alter the criminal law, and was 
directed to reduce the said criminal law into proper 
form under certain heads or titles, and to lay the same 
before the legislature, to be by them, if approved, 



90 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

enacted into laws. In 1795 it was enacted that he 
be authorized, according to his discretion, to correct, 
alter, and modify such of the statutes and laws which 
he had not reported on, and also to draft and pro- 
pose for the consideration and approbation of the 
legislature such bills as should appear to him con- 
ducive to the interests of the State, and to the com- 
pletion of the revision and system of the laws of this 
State intended by the act, and that he be requested 
to translate the Latin and French terms as near as 
may be into English. 

He appears to have ceased to report any new laws 
after 1798. In that year it was enacted that the sum 
of six hundred pounds be paid to, him to defray the 
expense of printing; and another act, passed in 1799, 
provided that he might omit the titles of acts passed, 
and insert only such as he should deem necessary 
and proper. 

Upon the completion of his revision of the British 
statutes, an act was passed which enacted that there- 
after no statute or act of parliament of England or 
of Great Britain shall have force or authority within 
this State, or be considered as a law thereof. This 
section appears in the draft prepared by him (for 
fortunately all his drafts have been preserved and 
bound together), but another section was added, which 
he did not prepare. It enacted " that no adjudication, 
decision, or opinion made, had, or given in any court 
of law or equity in Great Britain, or any cause 
therein depending, nor any printed or written report 
or statement thereof, nor any compilation, commen- 
tary, digest, lecture, treatise, or other explanation or 
exposition of the common law, made, had, given, 
written, or composed since the fourth day of July, 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 91 

1776, in Great Britain, shall be received or read in 
any court of law or equity of this State, as law, or 
evidence of the law, or elucidation or exj^lanation 
thereof, any practice, opinion, or sentiment of the said 
courts of justice, used, entertained, or expressed to 
the contrary hereof notwithstanding." The intensity 
of the language employed in this act shows the strong 
repugnance to everything British which had been 
produced by the war. It was somewhat modified the 
next year, but in 1801 it was reenacted, and an addi- 
tional section added, requiring that any attorney who 
should offer to read any such book should be depnived 
of his license. And so this extraordinary law re- 
mained until 1818, when, through the influence of 
William Griffith and Joseph Hopkinson, who were 
that year members of the Assembly, and of Gov- 
ernor, Williamson, it was repealed. 

An examination of the statutes Mr. Paterson com- 
piled, to take the place of those English statutes 
which had been considered in force before the Revolu- 
tion, will convince any lawyer of the care he took to 
make them complete, and to preserve, so far as cir- 
cumstances would allow, the old terms, most of which 
had undergone judicial examination. The first act 
of this kind that appears, which the legislature 
passed into a law in November, 1794, is the act re- 
specting amendments and jeofliils (Pat. R. 126). This 
act embodies provisions from not less than fifteen 
English statutes, from the time of 14 Edward III. to 
George II., and still continues on our statute books 
unaltered. Subsequent statutes and decisions have, 
however, greatly extended the power of the courts to 
order amendments. 

Most of the acts passed by the legislature from 



92 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

1794 to 1798, are transcripts of English statutes, 
sometimes much improved, but generally retaining 
the original language, the construction of which 
had been settled by adjudications, which were thus 
adapted to our circumstances, and still continue an 
important part of our legal system. Very difficult 
questions, in regard to what British statutes applied 
to the colony, had from time to time arisen. One, 
and perhaps the best opinion, was that none passed 
after a local legislature was established in 1702, were 
in force here, unless the colonies were expressly 
nanued ; but the courts did not strictly adhere to this 
principle. In some cases a local statute had declared 
that all English statutes concerning a certain matter 
should be in force in this province, as, for instance, the 
statutes concerning the limitations of actions passed 
in 1727-8 (Allinson, 72), but many important ones 
were left apparently to the discretion of the courts. 
It may be safely said, that when he completed the 
work assigned him, and included all the public acts 
in the book entitled " Laws of the State of New Jer- 
sey, revised and published under the authority of the 
legislature, by William Paterson," he completed a 
system of statute law more perfect than that of any 
other State, and thus laid the foundation of a body of 
laws which has continued to this day to deserve the 
highest praise. The act to regulate the practice of 
courts of the law, passed in 1799 (Pat. 353), which 
took the place of the crude system known as Clark's 
Practice, shows the hand of a master. Instead of at- 
tempting a perfectly new system, he wisely took, as 
his principal model, the practice of the English court 
of k. ng's bench, which had been always the practice 
of the courts of New Jersey, and introduced amend- 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 93 

ments which made it more suitable to our altered cir- 
cumstances, many of which were soon adopted in Eng- 
land. It may be doubted whether many of the modern 
alterations of this system have been any improve- 
ment of it. He also greatly improved the practice of 
the court of chancery, of which he was himself the 
judge, by the act respecting the court of chancery, re- 
ported soon after his appointment, but not passed 
into a law until June, 1799. 

Upon the completion of his work, Paterson was 
paid the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars for his 
services, and two editions of the compilation were 
published, one in large folio, and the other a large 
octavo, which were used during the ensuing twenty 
years. In 1811 Governor Bloorafield, by authority 
of the legislature, compiled and published the public 
acts passed after Paterson's edition, with an index 
and the titles of the private acts. In 1819 a com- 
mittee of the legislature were authorized to employ 
a fit persoif to examine, compile, and prepare all the 
acts in force, and to prepare and report to the next 
leo-islature such laws as he should deem advisable 
for consolidating into one act the same subject mat- 
ter, with such corrections and amendments as he 
should think proper to recommend. The committee 
selected Judge Pennington, and he undertook the 
duty, so that the legislature of 1819-20, which had 
three sittings for the purpose, having completed the 
revision, authorized Samuel L. Southard and Charles 
Ewing, Esqrs., to superintend and direct the printing 
of the same. In 1821 this compilation was published 
as "Laws of the State of New Jersey, revised and 
published under the authority of the legislature," and 
has since been quoted by the judges as Revised Laws. 



94 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

In 1838, Mr. Harrison, by authority of the legislature, 
published a compilation of the public laws passed 
since 1820, with a reference to the private laws, and 
a very full index. After the adoption of the new 
constitution in 1845, Peter D. Vroom, Henry W. 
Green, and Stacy G. Potts were authorized to revise 
the laws and reduce them into one, so as to conform 
them to the present constitution, and lay them before 
the legislature, provided that no change should be 
made in the phraseology or distribution of the sec- 
tions that had been the subject of judicial decisions, 
by which the construction thereof, as established by 
such decisions, might be affected or impaired. After- 
wards these revisors were authorized to superintend 
the printing of the completed work, which was pub- 
lished in 1847, and has been since quoted as Revised 
Statutes. The index, it was understood, was prepared 
by Mr. Potts. The Digests since published as Elmer's 
and Nixon's Digests, of which the fourth edition is 
now in use, were prepared without any previous 
sanction of the legislature, but have been since pub- 
lished by its authority. 

In March, 1793, Governor Paterson was nominated 
by President Washington as a justice of the supreme 
court of the United States, an office which he held 
the remainder of his life. This appointment, con- 
sidering the source of it, and the means of knowing 
his fitness for it afforded by the part he took in the 
proceedings of the constitutional convention, over 
which Washington presided, must be considered as a 
flattering testimony of his fitness. It seldom happens, 
indeed, that the executive has such an opportunity 
of judging for himself of the qualifications of those 
he appoints to important offices as happened in this 



WILLIAM PATEESON. 95 

case. It has been stated that Washington, when he 
nominated another of the judges, supposed he was 
appointing an entirely different man, and was much 
surprised when he discovered his error. 

There beincr at that time no such division of 
judicial districts as now prevails, the judges travelled 
'from Maine to Georgia. When Paterson held the 
federal court at Richmond, Virginia, it happened that 
some foolish official who had control of the bell in the 
State House, refused to allow the marshal to have it 
rung for that court. The judge advised his officer 
to procure a tin horn and have it blown at the proper 
times, and this was done. The circumstances being 
made known to the governor he promptly interfered 
and ordered that the bell should be put at the control 
of the marshal. The judge, when informed of this 
change, sent his thanks to the governor, but said he 
had got along very well with his horn, and continued 
to have it blown as long as the court sat. 

The opinions delivered by Paterson while a judge 
of the supreme court, so far as they have been re- 
ported, will be found in Dallas' and Cranch's Reports j 
and it is perhaps sufficient to say that he fully sus- 
tained his reputation. In the case of Vanhorne's 
Lessee vs. Dorrance, tried in 1795 before the United 
States circuit court for Pennsylvania, which occupied 
fifteen days, and involved the title to land in the val- 
ley of the Wyoming in Pennsylvania, claimed by the 
plaintiff under a title derived from Penn, and by the 
defendant under a title from Connecticut, fortified 
by a deed purporting to be from Indians, and by an 
act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, he delivered a 
very elaborate and manifestly correct charge in favor 
of the plaintiff. The main reliance of the counsel 



REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 



for the defendant was on the act of Assembly for 
quieting the Connecticut claimants, which he held to 
be contrary to the constitution of that State, and 
therefore invalid. He also presided in the trial of 
several of the persons charged with treason in resist- 
ing the authority of the United States during what 
was called the Whiskey Insurrection, who were con-- 
victed, but afterwards pardoned. 

It is scarcely possible to overestimate the impor- 
tance of the questions that have been presented to 
the supreme court for its decision, from its first ses- 
sion to the present day ; and it is a subject of great 
gratification that, however individuals may have dis- 
sented from particular opinions, or however frequently 
the judges may have differed among themselves, as 
from the nature of the matters submitted to their 
jurisdiction, so commonly more or less involving 
questions of policy, was inevitable, the general result 
has been so beneficial. A recent decision, holding 
one of the most important laws ever passed by Con- 
gress, so far as it attempts to authorize the payment 
of existing debts in anything but gold and silver to 
be contrary to the constitution, and therefore void, 
if it satisfies the sober second thought of the leading 
minds of the country, as there is every reason to 
expect, will do more to establish the credit of the 
nation for all future time than could have been ef- 
fected in any other mode, and if, on the contrary, the 
lapse of time and of events shall prove it to be erro- 
neous, there will be found no insuperable difficulty 
in establishing a different doctrine by a direct amend- 
ment of the constitution, or by the reversal of an 
improvident opinion.^ 

1 Since this itaragraph was penned, pointed to be committed on the subject, 
two new judges, known when ap- have hiistened to unite with the prior 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 97 

In the case of Penhallow vs. Doane's Administrators, 
(Dallas R. 80), which grew out of the proceedings 
in a court of admiralty of the State of New Hamp- 
shire, and upon an appeal to a court established by 
Congress during the confederation, Judge Paterson 
delivered an able opinion, a part of which I quote, 
because of its bearing upon questions respecting the 
nature of our complex government, which have re- 
cently occasioned so much difficulty : — 

" Much has been said respecting the powers of Congress. On 
this part of the subject, the counsel on both sides displayed great 
ingenuity and erudition, and that too in a style of eloquence equal to 
the magnitude of the question. The powerfe of Congress during the 
war were revolutionary in their nature, arising out of events ade- 
quate to every national emergency, and coextensive with the object 
obtained. Congress was the general, supreme, and controlling coun- 
cil of the nation ; the centre of union, the centre of force, and the 
sun of the political system. To determine what their powers were, 
we must in(|uire what powers they exercised. Congress raised 
armies, fitted out a navy, and prescribed rules for their government. 
Congress conducted all military o]:)erations, both by land and sea. 
Congress emitted bills of credit, and sent ambassadors and made 
treaties. Congress commissioned privateers to cruise against the 
enemy ; directed what vessels should be liable to capture, and pre- 
scribed rules for the distribution of prizes. These high acts of 
sovereignty were submitted to, acquiesced in, and approved by the 
people of America. In Congress were vested, because by Congress 
were exercised, with the approbation of the people, the rights and 
powers of war and peace. In every government, whether it consists 
of many states or of a few ; or whether it be of a federal or con- 
solidated nature, there must be a supreme power or will : the rio-hts 
of war and peace are component parts of this supremacy, and inci- 
dental thereto is the question of prize. The (]uestion of prize grows 
out of the nature of the thing. If it be asked, In whom, during our 
Revolutionary War, was lodged, and by whom was exercised, this 

minority of the court in overriilinj^ a constitutional legislation of state legis- 

deliberate opinion ; and have thus given hxtures, it cannot be rclicd on to inter-' 

us a painful proof, that however useful fere with the action of Congress,, 
the court may be in restraining the un- 



98 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

supreme authority ? no one will hesitate to answer, It was lodged 
in, and exercised by Congress ; it was there or nowhere ; the States 
individually did not, and with safety could not exercise it. Disas- 
trous would have been the issue of the contest, if the States separately 
had exercised the power of war. For in such case, there would 
have been as many supreme wills as there were States ; and as many 
wars as there were wills. Happily, however, for America, this was 
not the case ; there was but one war, and one sovereign will to con- 
duct it." 

Perhaps the most celebrated of the cases tried be- 
fore him, was the indictment against Matthew Lyon, 
for a violation of the sedition law, passed by Congress 
in 1798. He maintained the constitutionality of this 
act, and sentenced 'the defendant to pay a fine of one 
thousand dollars, which was, after the lapse of forty 
years, refunded by virtue of a special law for that 
purpose. ■ The supreme court sustained his decision ; 
but it was not long before public opinion compelled 
the repeal of this and the alien law, which are not 
likely to be revived. During the administration of 
Mr. Adams, when political feeling had become very 
intense, an indictment, drawn by Mr. Lucius H. Stock- 
ton, the attorney of the United States for New Jer- 
sey, was returned a true bill, against an individual 
who, during the excitement of a political contest, made 
a foolish and very vulgar remark about the president, 
respecting a salute fired in his honor, which, when it 
came to be published, was so ridiculous that the cir- 
cumstance helped very much to make the law odious. 

His friends were much dissatisfied with President 
Adams, that upon the resignation of Chief Justice 
Ellsworth, he did not select Paterson to take his place, 
his declining to do so being attributed to his having 
conceived a prejudice against him ; and this, consid- 
ering the well-known disposition of Mr. Adams, ma}^ 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 99 

have been in part the reason. But it may be that, as 
has usually been the practice in England, he thought 
it best to avoid any danger of distrust and jealousy 
among the associate judges by taking the chief justice 
from the fittest person outside their number; and it 
must be remembered that whatever may have been 
the controlling motive, the man he selected for the 
position was John Marshall. 

The last of Judge Paterson's official acts and of his 
public life, was as the presiding justice, with District 
Judge Talmadge, in the circuit court of the United 
States, at New York, April, 1806, on the trials of 
indictments against Samuel G. Ogden and William S. 
Smith for violating our neutrality acts, by aiding 
Miranda in his expedition to wrest some of the South 
American States from the dominion of Spain. They 
were state trials, which excited great attention, and 
in which the public, as has been usual in such cases, 
sympathized with the defendants. The defendants 
had employed the most eminent counsel at the New 
York bar. An attempt was made to postpone the 
trials on account of the absence of several members 
of Jefferson's cabinet, who, it was alleged, were im- 
portant witnesses, wanted to prove that the adminis- 
tration was aware of and connived at the design, and 
against whom attachments were moved for, because 
they had not obeyed the subpoenas served on them. 
The judges agreed in refusing postponement. Pater- 
son stating that at first he had inclined to agree to 
the request on account of his own infirm henlth, but 
he was satisfied he should not be sufficiently recovered 
in a reasonable time, so that no benefit would result 
to the defendants by delay. An elaborate opinion 
was delivered by Paterson, holding that the facts it 



L.ofC. 



100 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was alleged could be proved would be no justification 
of the criminal acts that were charged. Upon the 
question of attachments, he stated the judges disa- 
greed ; and that when this happens, they do not assign 
any reasons in favor of their respective opinions, but 
merely state the point of disagreement, that either 
party may carry it into the supreme court for ulti- 
mate decision. These proceedings consumed several 
days, the decision to proceed with the trial being 
made in July. Judge Paterson then left the bench, 
and the trials proceeded before the district judge, 
ending in the acquittal of both defendants. 

The health of Judge Paterson continued from this 
time to decline, and he died, at the residence of his 
daughter in Albany, w^ho was the wife of Stephen 
Van Rensselaer " the Patroon," on the 9th of Sep- 
tember, 1806, in the sixty-second year of his age. It 
has been said of him that, " although small in stature, 
he was every inch a judge." All that remains of him 
serves to show that he was a man of great ability, and 
entirely worthy of the important stations in the state 
and federal governments he was called on to fill. 
From 1787 to 1802, he was one of the trustees of 
Princeton College. He left two children, a son and 
daughter of his first wife ; his second wife, whom he 
married in New Brunswick, left no issue. The son, 
who was a lawyer, died in 1833 ; and his son, also a 
lawyer, survived him. Mr. Van Rensselaer left several 
children, one of them Rev. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, 
who died in 1860, greatly regretted, resided in and 
was well known in New Jersey. 

Judge Paterson, though possessing an intellect and 
ability of high order, was not an orator in the ordi- 
nary acceptation of the term. He was a diligent and 



WILLIAM PATERSON. 101 

laborious student, and, as a lawyer, prepared his cases 
with much examination. Indeed, it is understood 
that he seldom addressed a court or jury without 
copious notes, and often from a written argument, a 
practice, however, by no means peculiar to him. He 
himself states, in a letter to President Laurens, that 
" he was not one of those ready men, who can at the 
bar take up a long and intricate cause, and manage 
it with ease and address." He evidently distrusted his 
own ability, though it is certain that industry and 
application, however persevering of themselves, could 
never obtain the reputation or eminence he obtained 
in after life. 

In his religious opinions, though attached to the 
rights and forms of the Presbyterian Church, in which 
he was bred, he was liberal and charitable. • His 
pastor spoke of him as " one who read and studied 
much on the subject of religion, and who was familiar 
with its doctrines, both natural and revealed. For 
the Scriptures he had the highest reverence, and was 
liberal in contributino- to the maintenance of the 
ministry." Although he did not make a public pro- 
fession of his fjiith during his active life, from doubts 
as to his preparation and fitness, doubts perhaps pro- 
duced by the preaching not uncommon in his day, 
still he did not neglect the outward duties prescribed 
by the authorities of his church, and for some years 
before his death, to use his own words, was more than 
ordinarily impressed with religious subjects and medi- 
tations. In his last illness, he contemplated, with 
regret, this omission to make a public profession of 
his faith in Christ ; and did not bid farewell to family 
and friends until he had partaken of the solemn 
ordinance of communion, and urged this duty upon 
those connected with him bv the nearest and dear- 



102 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

est ties ; and in doing this he was no doubt much 
strengthened by the example of his pious son-in-law, 
at whose house he died. 

EiCHARD Howell, governor from 1793 to 1801, was 
the son of Ebenezer Howell, whose parents came to 
this country from Wales in 1729, and settled in 
Newark, Newcastle County, Delaware. Richard was 
one of eleven children, and with his twin brother 
Lewis was born October 25th, 1754. They were edu- 
cated at Newcastle, in a school where they were 
taught gymnastic exercises, such as leaping, boxing, 
etc. A string being stretched, the rule was, that the 
one who first jumped over it must box with any one 
who chose to fight. Lewis would jump over at once ; 
but was too small and weak to be a match for the 
others. Richard would at once step up and fight his 
battles, rarely, if ever, finding his match at this sport. 
When about fifteen years old, their father came over 
to New Jersey, and settled in Cumberland County, a 
few miles west of Bridgeton, where he resided until 
his death. The two boys remained in Delaware 
until their education was completed. They came 
over to this State in 1774, or perhaps earlier. Lewis 
became a student of medicine with Dr. Jonathan 
Elmer, and Richard studied law. 

Both the brothers were of the party who, in No- 
vember, 1774, disguised themselves as Indians, broke 
into a store-house at Greenwich, a few miles from their 
father's residence, took out the boxes of a pretty 
considerable cargo of tea stored there, imported in a 
brig called the Greyhound, and burned them. They, 
with others engaged in this matter, were sued by 
the owners, but the case was never brought to trial. 
At the May term of the Cumberland court of oyer 



RICHARD HOWELL. 103 

and termmer, Chief Justice Frederick Smyth, who 
held the court there as a royal judge for the last 
time, gave a very pointed charge to the grand jury 
respecting this affair ; and when they returned into 
court without a true bi]l, sent them back to reconsider 
the case ; but Jonathan Elmer, the Whig sheriff, had 
taken very good care to summon a Whig grand jury, 
of which one of his brothers was foreman, and they 
returned empty-handed. 

Early in 1775, Richard was appointed a subaltern 
officer in a company of light-infantry, and in De- 
cember, when but little over twenty-one years, he 
was commissioned as captain of the second regiment 
of the New Jersey line of Continental troops, com- 
manded by Colonel William Maxw^ell. A company was 
recruited in Cumberland and Salem under his com- 
mand, respecting which Ebenezer Elmer records in a 
journal of the date ''Die Soils 10 Deer., 1775. Went 
to meeting at Greenwich. Mr. Hollinshead preached. 
Capt. Howell's soldiers there ; came and went away 
in form. Die Blercurii 13 mo. Clear and cold ; the sol- 
diers went on board the Greenwich packet at evening 
to sail for Burlington. Die Jovis 14 mo. Cloudy day; 
the soldiers, captain and all, went in the dead of 
night off, on foot, to get clear of their creditors ; their 
going aboard of the vessel turned out only a sham." 

The regiment of Continental troops in which he 
was a captain was ordered to Canada. A letter, ad- 
dressed to his brother Lewis, has been preserved, 
which gives some account of his proceedings and his 
feelings. It is as follows : — 

"Mt. Independence, 26 September, 1776. 
" I know by Harper, of the Fourth Pennsylvania battalion, that 
you have received letters from me, and though at New York you 



104 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

never wrote to me, notwithstanding you must have been assured that 
I was at Ticonderoga. I received one letter from my father, and 
one from George Evans, all the friends I have that ever recollected 
I was yet in being, all to whom I had written this month past. It 
seems as if you really submitted to the supposition that I was lost 
in Canada, and thought it not worth while to make inquiry. 

" As to the afFaixs of Canada, you have heard them I doubt not ; 
if you have not, I cannot tell you, only I had the honor to fire the 
first gun on the plains of Abram, before the retreat — an unhappy 
affair. We know what it is to flee for miles before an enemy of 
three to one, furnished with everything; wliile we were reduced 
sometimes to one quart of meal, bran and all, a man, 

" Before Quebec we had not at any time that day two hundred 
men to attack the enemy, at least seven hundred strong. Nothing 
could be done ; all that was done I did with twenty men, who gave 
them a close fire, and it was said by M'Clean that he lost seven 
men that day, and I gave the only fire that was given. The Trois 
River affair I was not at, having been taken sick ; but every other 
difficulty of Canada I shared. I have been sick twice only, which 
was extraordinary, remembering the difficulties. Ticonderoga has 
been a scene of bad usage to our regiment. The colonel, one of 
the most patient and brave men in our regiment, by his plain, hon- 
est resentment of an injurious aspersion from General Gates, has 
laid himself and us under his displeasure. But this we cheerfully 
submit to, as we, as well as all who have seen Colonel Maxwell's ser- 
vices in Canada, know him to deserve General Gates' highest com- 
plaisance, not his displeasure. I have been, by some extraordinary 
means, advanced to the rank of major of brigade. I would not, 
nevertheless, give up my company in a standing regiment for such 

employment, I will return with the regiment if possible, and 

hope you will not (and to you only I can, or ever have mentioned 
such a thing) let an opportunity pass to procure me a station in the 
future campaign, equal to my present rank, I have done nothing 
extraordinary to merit it, for I have had no opportunity ; but have 
done more than any other when I have been where anything could 
be done. The nature of the service I am acquainted with pretty 
well, as nothing can be done in camp where I am without making 
myself acquainted with it," 

I do not know in what capacity Lewis was serving 
in the army at this time. In the succeeding winter 



RICHARD HOWELL. 105 

lie was appointed surgeon of the second Jersey reg- 
iment, as then arranged under the command of Colo- 
nel Shrieve, of which Richard became the major; 
my father, Ebenezer Elmer, being the surgeon's mate, 
afterwards on the death of Lewis Howell promoted 
to be surgeon. At New York our army had been un- 
successful. General Washington, in a letter to his 
brother of November 19, 1776, says: "You can form 
an idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man 
I believe ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and 
less means to extricate himself from them." Never- 
theless Carleton, after occupying Crown Point, re- 
turned to Canada without attempting anything fur- 
ther. The forces raised for this northern campaign 
had been enlisted to serve a year, and some of them 
agreed to remain six months longer, but not the 
Jersey troops. 

Colonel Maxwell wrote to the o-overnor and coun- 
cil of New Jersey as follows : — 

" Point Independence, October, 18, 1776. 
" Gextlejien, — Agreeably to your instructions, sent by Hon. 
John Cleve Symmes and Tunis Dey, I have furnished tliem with 
the necessary returns. Clothing I did not think worthy of mention- 
ing, as they are chiefly worn out. I have likewise given them a 
list of those officers that choose to continue in the service during 
the war. I am sorry to inform you that there is not one man 
willing at present (nor do I think they will while here) to engage to 
stay at this place during the winter. I have laid before them every 
proposal the Continental Congress has made them, the great care 
your honorable house is taking to provide them warm clothing, and 
the glorious cause we are engaged in, but all to no purpose. They 
generally say they will engage as soon as they go home, and I be- 
lieve they will. This being the first year of their service, and as 
it has been so severe a one, and now a contract offered that they 
know not when it will end, it may be easily conceived they will re- 
quire a little time to deliberate. 



lOG REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

"I have the pleasure to inform you that I have in general as 
good a set of officers as there is in any battalion in the Continental 
service, and of course they will make good soldiers, what we have 
still remaining in health, I believe there is none better." 

This testimony i^ the more valuable from the fact 
that many of the officers fresh appointed, as is gen- 
erally the case in all wars, were incompetent. Wash- 
ington, in his letter to his brother, before quoted, 
says: "The different States, without regard to the 
qualifications of an officer, quarreling about the ap- 
pointments, and nominating such as are not fit to be 
boot-blacks, from the local attachments of this or that 
member of assembly." 

Upon the new organization of the New Jersey 
regiments. Maxwell was promoted to be brigadier- 
general, and Howell to be major. Maxwell's brigade 
took an active part in the battle of the Brandywine, 
at which both of the brothers were present. He sus- 
tained a loss of forty killed and wounded, Colonel 
Shrieve being badly wounded. Lewis was taken pris- 
oner, but escaped, and in doing so drew upon himself 
the fire of a platoon, several balls passing through his 
cap and coat without touching him. 

On the day of the battle of Monmouth, June, 1778, 
Lewis died from an attack of fever, at a small tavern 
not far from the place of the engagement. He sent 
word on the previous day to his brother, the major, 
that he wished to see him, and to come at once, if he 
expected to see him alive. This induced him to ask 
permission of Maxwell to do so. "Yes, yes," said 
the old Scotchman, " go and see your brother ; it 
happens very well for you ; we will have a hard day's 
fight to-morrow." This taunt prevented his going ; 
he was a thorough soldier ; so he stayed and fouglit 



RICHARD HOWELL. 107 

out the battle. When he went the next day he 
found his brother dead. This incident is stated on 
the authority of a nephew, who had heard it from 
his father. 

He did not remain much longer in the army ; but 
was licensed as an attorney in April, 1779, and re- 
turned to Cumberland, where he appears to have 
lived several years, it being stated that three of his 
children were born in that county in 1780, 1782, and 
1783. He married a daughter of Joseph Burr, of 
Burlington County, in November, 1779. HLs name 
appears frequently during these years, as an attor- 
ney on the records of Cumberland and Salem. 

A letter from one of his brothers, written to one 
of his sons, and dated May 24, 1837, says : — 

" His resignation was occasioned by a special request from Gen- 
eral Washington, who immediately ordered him to transact certain 
duties of a private nature, which he could not perform while holding 
a military commission from Congress. The nature of that business, 
I am bound under the strongest obligation not to reveal, even to his 
own children. I do not mention the last case, as supposing it wUl 
have any weight respecting your claim on the State, but merely that 
you may know liis reasons for resigning his commission after serving 
through the most trying scenes of the war. The nature of this pri- 
vate bu:?iness created strong suspicions of his patriotism in the minds 
of many who were strangers to his authority for so doing ; so much 
so, that he was arrested in his father's house for high treason, high 
misdemeanor, or whatever legal term the law uses in such cases, be- 
fore the supreme court of New Jersey, Judge Brearly then presiding. 
He was then obliged to produce his commission, and the judge on the 
sight thereof, not only discharged him from arrest, but ordered every 
proceeding in the case to be erased from the minutes of the court. 
Thus you see, my dear sir, though your father's resignation may 
operate! against your claim, it has in no shape tarnished his military 
character. He was recognized by his companions as one of their 
most shining characters, and if I have not been wrongly informed, 
died a member of the Cincinnati." 



108 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

This reticence of his brother, at a period so long 
after the transaction referred to, when it would seem 
impossible that the truth could do any harm, is some- 
what characteristic of the respectable gentleman who 
writes the letter, who was well known to me. It is 
certain from the after career of Howell, that his 
character did not suffer by his resignation. The 
private business in which he was employed by Gen- 
eral Washington, in all probability, was the being 
engaged in obtaining intelligence of the proceedings 
of the British commanders at New York and else- 
where, to effect which it is well known that he 
was obliged to resort to many contrivances. Many 
years ago, I often heard my father and others who had 
served in the Revolutionary army, jokingly remind 
Dr. Shute, a highly respectable physician of Bridge- 
ton, of a scrape into which he got, arising from these 
contiivances in regard to the spies relied upon in that 
delicate and dangerous service. A peddler who was 
engaged in bringing clothes, etc., from out of the Brit- 
ish lines and selling them, contrary to law, and who 
was required to be arrested by our officers wherever 
found, having been captured and confined in the 
guard-house, he was put in charge of Shute, then quite 
young, a subaltern officer, who had been but a short 
time in the service. Late in the evening a woman of 
laro-e dimensions came with an order from General 
Dayton, to be permitted to see her husband, the ped- 
dler, and she was of course admitted. After a short 
time Shute was alarmed by her cries of distress, and 
informed that she must have assistance. Before he 
had made up his mind what to do, however, to his 
great relief he was informed she was better, and 
ready to depart, which he was glad to permit her to 



RICHARD HOWELL. 109 

do. In the morning it appeared the peddler spy had 
escaped, and his pretended wife had remained. Lieu- 
tenant Shute was put under arrest, and terribly 
frightened ; but after a few days, in consideration of 
his youth and inexperience, was letofl" with a private 
reprimand. In process of time, it became well known 
that General Dayton, who was much trusted by 
Washington, had purposely caused a young officer to 
be detailed to command the guard, and had procured 
the woman to personate the wife of his spy, that he 
might thus enable him to escape, without his secret 
employment becoming known. 

In September, 1788, Mr. Howell was elected clerk 
of the supreme court, having a short time before 
taken up his residence in Trenton. He took a leading 
part. Governor Livingston being absent, in getting up 
the proceedings of the citizens of Trenton on the 21st 
of April, 1789, upon " receiving his excellency George 
Washington, President of the United States, on his 
route to the seat of federal government," a very good 
account of which was published in the " Columbian 
Magazine," published at Philadelphia, with an engrav- 
.ing giving a well executed view of the triumphal 
arch erected at the bridge over'the Assanpink, the 
same place at which the army under Washington's 
command had repulsed the enemy. 

Upon the appointment of Paterson as judge, in 
1793, Richard Howell was elected by the joint meet- 
ing, governor, receiving twenty-five votes, the remain- 
ing twenty-three being divided between Frelinghuy- 
sen and Rutherfurd, and continued to be reelected 
yearly, generally unanimously, until 1801, when the 
Republican party having obtained the ascendency in 
the State, he being ranked among the Federalists was 



110 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

succeeded by Joseph Bloomfield. While he held the 
office of governor, in the year 1794, President Wash- 
ington having called out a large body of the militia 
to suppress what was called the Whiskey Insurrection, 
in the western part of Pennsylvania, he took com- 
mand of those sent from New Jersey, and was by 
General Washino-ton assio;ned the command of the 
right wing of the army, his successor in the office 
of governor havino; the command under him as a 
brigadier-general. Happily the insurgents attempted 
no armed resistance, and the object of vindicating 
the law was effected without bloodshed. 

The following is an extract from one of his orders, 
issued at Laurel Hill, October 27, 1794, as recorded by 
Major Gould, in his journal of the expedition : — 

" The troops of New Jersey are scandalized by the petty pilfer- 
ings of a few who dishonor their fathers and their State, and every 
individual suffers for the fiiults of a few. All are hereby instructed 
to suppress the ignominious practice. The orders of General Lee, 
including the letter of the President, and those issued since the 
march to Bedford, which respect the detachment, are to be distinctly 
read to the troops this evening, and obedience unfeigned by the 
captains, on whom depends the conduct of the men." 

These troops were dismissed by an order of General 
Washington, dated at Pittsburg, November 17, 1794, 
in which he directs that on the next Thursday, at 
the hour of eight a. m., the New Jersey line should 
move under the command of his excellency Governor 
Howell, who will be pleased to pursue from Bedford 
such routes as he may find most convenient. 

Governor Howell, although not a poet of the high- 
est order, was accustomed to write songs and other 
fugitive pieces, not without merit. The following lines 
were composed to be sung by the soldiers on this 
occasion, and are said to have been at the time very 
popular : — 



RICHARD HOWELL. Ill 

" To arms, once more our hero cries, 
Sedition lives and order dies ; 
To peace and ease then bid adieu, 
And dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

" CHORUS. 

" Dash to the mountains, -Jersey Blue, 
Jersey Blue, Jersey Blue, 
And dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

" Since pround ambition rears its head, 
And murders rage, and discords spread ; 
To save from spoil the virtuous few. 
Dash over the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

Dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue, etc. 

" Roused at the call, with magic sound 
The drums and trumpets circle round, 
A« soon as the corps their route pursue ; 
So dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

Dash to the mountains Jersey Blue, etc. 

" Unstained with crime, unused to fear. 
In deep array our youths appear ; 
And fly to crush the rebel crew. 
Or die in the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

Dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue, etc. 

" The tears bedew the maidens' cheeks. 
And storms hang round the mountains bleak ; 
'Tis glory calls, to love adieu. 
Then dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue. 

Dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue, etc. 

" Should foul misrule and party rage 
With law and liberty engage. 
Push home your steel, you'll soon review 
Your native plains, brave Jersey Blue. 

Dash to the mountains, Jersey Blue, etc." 

During his time, the house on what was then called 
Market, now State Street, in Trenton, was purchased 
for the permanent residence of the governor, and 



112 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was occupied by Governor Howell. But little is 
known of his situation after he ceased to be governor; 
only that he returned to the practice of the Law. None 
of his opinions as chancellor, have been published ; 
and such is the state of the old chancery rolls that 
it would require more patient labor than it is worth 
to undertake to decipher them. The business of that 
court, in his day, compared with the present, was un- 
important, although it occasionally happened that a 
case of some interest was brouo-ht before him. 

The following lines are said to have been inscribed 
under a portrait of him, by some unknown friend, and 
probably express his general character : — 

" Howell for social virtues famed afar, 
Shone in the ranks and urged the dreadful war ; 
His graceful form expressed a noble mind. 
The soul of honor, friend of human kind." 

He was undoubtedly a man of free and easy address, 
very popular, although somewhat affected by his army 
habits. He was very fond of the athletic exercises 
common in his day, — now disused, it is to be feared, 
to the physical injury of the present race of Ameri- 
cans, — such as pitching quoits and playing ball; and 
even while governor could often be found in the alley 
then generally attached to the inns. He was also fond 
of ridino; a li^ood horse, and used to tell with some o-lee, 
that once, while riding from Bordentown to Trenton, 
a black fellow came out of the gate of William Pear- 
son's farm, adjoining the road, mounted on a good 
horse, and seeing the governor, addressed him, — 

" Massa rides a nice horse, but I guess Massa Pear- 
son's bay mare can outtrot him." 

" If you think so, Dick, let's try," replied the gov- 
ernor. 



RICHARD HOWELL. 113 

" Yes, massa ; whichever gets first to the Blooms- 
bury road shall win a dollar." 

This was agreed to, and they started ; but before 
they got to the designated goal, the governor, find- 
ing he was much ahead, looked around and saw that 
Dick had turned tail, and was making the best of his 
way back to Massa Pearson's. The governor never 
got his dollar. 

He died at his residence, near Trenton, May 5, 
1803, at the early age of forty-nine. He had nine 
children, of whom some died in infancy. Richard, 
born in 1794, was in 1812 a lieutenant in the fif- 
teenth regiment of infantry, and was aid to General 
Pike when he was killed at the blowing up of Fort 
George, in Canada. William was lieutenant in the 
marine corps, and Franklin was a lieutenant in the 
navy, and was killed on board the frigate President. 
Mrs. Jefferson Davis, whose husband was president of 
the " Confederate States," is a granddaughter. 



CHAPTER V. 

GOVERNORS I HAVE KNOWN. 

JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. AAEON OGDFN. 

JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD was governor and chan- 
cellor from 1801 to 1812. I first visited Trenton 
in the year 1804. The bridge at South Trenton bad 
been just commenced ; the stage crossed the Dela- 
ware just below where the bridge now is, in a scow. 
I was a boy of about eleven years, and went with my 
father, an old companion in arms of the governor, 
and his life-time friend. He lived then in the gov- 
ernment house, situate on what was then called Mar- 
ket Street, now State Street, the house having since 
been altered and occupied as a hotel. He lived in 
very handsome style, suitable, as I thought, for a 
governor ; had a large, well maintained, productive 
garden, with a brick office near the house standing 
where Chancery Lane now is, and kept a gardener, 
coachman, and footman. We were received as accept- 
able guests, treated with much attention by him and 
Mrs. Bloomfield, who had no children of their own. 
I was diverted with a magic lantern, the first I had 
seen. The governor wore his hair powdered and a 
cue, according to the fashion of an earlier day, then 
beginning to be discarded, and was a good-looking 
man, dignified and courteous in his manners. The 
visit has always been remembered, as one of the 
pleasant events of my life. 



JOSEPH BLOOM FIELD. 115 

He was the son of Dr. Moses Bloomfield, and was 
born at Woodbiidge, Middlesex County, in the year 
1755. While a youth, he was sent to a classical 
school, taught by the Rev. Enoch Green, at Deerfield, 
Cumberland County. His father was an influential 
member of the legislature and of the Provincial 
Congress during the Revolution ; and married for his 
second wife, Mrs. Ward, a distant relative of mine, 
the widow of Dr. Ward of Cumberland, who died in 
1772. After he left the school, the son became a 
student of law with Cortlandt Skinner, attorney- 
general of the Province of New Jersej', a man of- 
high standing and influence as a lawyer and as a 
member of the Assembly and council. Attorney- 
generals of that day were very independent of pop- 
ular fiivor, and were accustomed to sell nolle prose quis 
for petty offenses, the usual price being, as 1 was told 
by a person who said he purchased one, a half-joe, a 
gold coin then current, of the value of eight dollars. 
During the early stages of the struggle for independ- 
ence, Mr. Skinner, like many others who in the end 
became Royalists, was strongly opposed to the en- 
croachments of the British ministry. But he soon 
changed his course ; and in October, 1775, wrote to 
Governor Boone, who gave up the place of governor 
in New Jersey for a like situation in South Carolina, 
in the followino; strain : — 

'' Taxes aud a restraint on the West India trade are most likely 
to force the colonists into manufactures, and put independence into 
their heads. They are on the high road to it now ; and though 'tis 
•true that they have not strength to effect it, but must submit, yet 
'tis laying the foundation for great trouble and expense to Britain, 
in keeping that by force which she might easily do without, and 
alienating a people which she might make her greatest prop and 
security." 



116 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

The attorney-general continued to occupy his po- 
sition during the year 1775, although the object of 
continued distrust and suspicion on the part of the 
determined Whigs; but in January, 1776, a letter of 
his to his brother, a lieutenant-colonel in England, 
was discovered, which induced the Continental Con- 
gress to order that it should be sent to the commit- 
tee of safety of New Jersey, and that orders be sent 
to Lord Stirling, to take with him a sufficient force 
and immediately apprehend and keep in safe custody 
the said Cortlandt Skinner of Amboy until farther 
orders. The said Cortlandt Skinner, however, had 
taken care to leave the colony, and take refuge on 
board a man-of-war, and all the Provincial Congress 
<30uld do was to direct their treasurer not to make 
any further payment of salary to him. He does not 
appear to have made any attempt to act as attorney- 
general after this. He no doubt confidently ex- 
pected to resume the position before many years, but 
the opportunity to do so never came. 

He took a commission as brigadier-general from 
General Howe, with authority to raise five battalions 
from among the disaffected of New Jersey, of which 
he only succeeded in obtaining five hundred and 
seventeen. He did all he could to aid the royal 
cause, and after the Revolution went to England with 
his family, and received from the government com- 
pensation for his forfeited estate, and half-pay for life. 
He died at Bristol, in 1799, at the age of seventy-one. 

Bloomfield had as a fellow-student, Andrew Bell, 
of Perth Amboy, who, like his preceptor, embraced 
the royal cause, although he did not afterwards leave 
the country. In 1775, he was licensed as an attor- 
ney, and soon took up his residence, and commenced 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIKLD. 117 

the practice of law in Bridgeton ; but unlike his pre- 
ceptor and fellow-.student, he was a decided Whig, and 
in February, 1776, was commissioned a captain in 
the third New Jersey regiment, commanded by Colo- 
nel Elias Dayton. My father was a subaltern officer 
of this company. A company of sixty-five men were 
recruited in the county to serve one year, and on the 
twenty-sixth day of March they took up their line 
of march to join the northern army in Canada. A 
full journal was kept by Lieutenant Elmer, which 
has been published in the second volume of the pro- 
ceedings of the Historical Society. He records : 
" Marched up to where Daniel Stretch abused us (at 
Whig Lane, about twelve miles from Bridgeton), for 
which we gave liim a new coat of tar and feathers, 
made him give three hearty cheers for Congress, and 
beg our pardon." On the third of April they reached 
Elizabethtown, and on the sixteenth were at Amboy, 
where they remained until the eighteenth of that 
month. 

It is remarked by Mr. Whitehead, at page 106 of 
his exceedingly interesting work, " Contributions to 
the Early History of Perth Amboy," that the " first 
duty Captain Bloomfield undertook, or upon which 
he was sent, is believed to have been the arrest of 
his former friend and adviser, Mr. Skinner. It is to 
be hoped that the duty was delegated, not assumed. 
We will not venture to analyze the feelings with 
which the house in which he had ever found a home 
was carefully searched, in the hope of securing the 
convicted loyalist. Fortunately its mistress was ab- 
sent ; but it was, under any circumstances, a trial of 
no ordinary character to have one who had dwelt 
beneath their roof, and been warmly cherished, thus 



118 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

diligently seeking to entrap the object of her high- 
est regard, particularly as there was no reason for 
presuming Mr. Skinner to be in Am boy." 

There is no doubt that the captain was acting in 
this matter under precise orders to search for, and if 
possible secure Skinner, as it appears he saw Governor 
Livint^^ston on his route ; but even if it were other- 
wise, and he is to be considered as a volunteer iii the 
attempt to arrest his old master, I do not see that he 
was deserving of reproach. He had embarked in a 
cause that put his own neck in danger of a halter, 
which those Skinner was serving would not have hes- 
itated to use, had their success been such as would 
have made it safe ; and it was necessary to prevent 
him, if possible, from using his influence to hicrease 
the number of disaffected persons, whom he engaged 
in enlisting to aid in cutting the throats of his fellow- 
citizens. It is not alleged that the duty of searching 
his house was improperly exercised ; and there is no 
reason to suppose that any violence to Skinner was 
intended. All that was necessary, or that was pro- 
posed, was to deal with him as Franklin had been 
dealt with ; that is, to put him as far as possible out 
the way of doing harm. 

The company embarked on board sloops at New 
York on the tliird day of May, and reached Albany 
at evening, May 6th, " wet and weary." On the 5th 
they were to be in readiness to march to Quebec ; 
but the news of the retreat from Quebec caused a 
change ; on the 20th a part of the regiment were di- 
rected to march up the Mohawk, " to subdue John- 
ston and his brood of Tories." In the evening of 
May 19th, Captain Bloomfield returned to Albany, 
with Lady Johnston a prisoner, bringing news that 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 119 

the reoriment was to be stationed at or near Johnston 
Hall to keep back the Indians. 

A iruard was set over the hall and maintained for 
some time. Some of the officers and men contrived, 
however, to steal many of the books and other arti- 
cles, for which they were tried by court-martial, and 
punished ; one of the officers was cashiered. Most 
of the regiment went to German Flats and Fort Stan- 
wix (near Rome). July 14th, the journal of Lieu- 
tenant Elmer records : — 

" Captain Bloomfiekl returned with a whole bag full of newa. 
He had received a letter from his father, in which was inclosed a 
Declaration of the Continental Congress, passed the 4th day of 
July, declanng the colonies free independent States, which, may 
God prosper and protect. Monday, 15th, about 12 o'clock, an as- 
sembly was beat for the men to parade, in order to receive a treat 
and drink the States' health. When having made a barrel of grog, 
the Declaration was read, and the following toast given by Parson 
Caldwell : * Harmony, virtue, honor, and all prosperity to the fi'ee 
and independent States of America ; wise legislators, brave and vic- 
torious armies, both by sea and land, to the American States.' 
When three hearty cheers were given, and the grog flew round 
amain." 

Shortly after this General Schuyler arrived, and 

the journal records : — 

" Captain Bloomfiekl had four men constantly guarding the gen- 
eral, day and night." (The inexperienced journalist seems to have 
thought this a very unnecessary parade.) " Prayers were omitted 
this evening, as the parson was attending the general, and Captain 
B. was constantly flirting about after him. After tattoo the gen- 
eral and parson and others who lodge with them were taken up, be- 
ing out of tlieir lodginjj takino; a walk. The sergeant of the ijuard 
being called, let them go in, with a charge not to be out so late 
for the future." 

Under the date of August 14, the journal con- 
tains an entry stating the journalist's opinion of 
the officers, a part of which is as follows : " Captain 



120 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Bloomfield, active, unsteady, fond of show, and a 
great admirer of his own abilities ; quick passions, 
but easily pacified." This was no doubt in the 
main, a correct statement of the captain's weak 
points, as recorded in a private journal, not in- 
tended for publication. The journalist was older 
than his superior officer, and it is very evident, 
from several statements he makes, that he felt a lit- 
tle sore at being compelled to occupy an inferior 
position. His father had died when he was quite 
young, and his education had been very much neg- 
lected, so much so, that he states in a short autobi- 
ography, that he had but one quarter's schooling, 
until past the age of twenty, when he placed himself 
• under tuition, to learn the practical branches of a 
seafaring life, but was induced by his brothers to 
enter upon the study of medicine, with his brother. 
Dr. Jonathan Elmer, ten years older than himself, 
and a thoroughly educated man. He was a resolute 
man, devoid of fear, but not otherwise well qualified 
to command as an officer, and was so sensible of this 
that at the close of the year for which he entered, he 
declined remaining in the line ; but took a position 
as a surgeon, in which he continued to the end of 
the war. Being a man of strong intellect and a dili- 
gent student, he became an excellent surgeon, well 
informed in politics, and an active influential man to 
the end of his life. Notwithstanding the appearances 
of dissatisfaction in the journal, Joseph Bloomfield 
and Ebenezer Elmer were personal and political 
friends during their joint lives. 

Early in November the troops marched to Ticon- 
deroga; here Captain Bloomfield was appointed 
judge advocate of the Northern Army. At this post 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 121 

there was much exposure and sickness, the cap- 
tain being for some time ill. On the 25th of Decem- 
ber he left for home. Shortly after, he was promoted 
to be major of the third regiment. It is stated in 
the register of the Cincinnati of New Jersey, that 
he was wounded, but upon what occasion, I have not 
been able to ascertain. His reii'iment was at the bat- 
tie of the Brandywine, and actively engaged there, 
and also at Monmouth. Sometime in 1778 he ap- 
pears to have resigned his commission in tlie army. 
In the fall of that year he was chosen clerk of the 
Assembly, and he was for several years register of 
the court of admiralty. Upon the organization of 
the Society of Cincinnati in 1783 he was enrolled as 
one of the members; in 1794 he was elected the 
vice-president, and in 1808 the president. 

In 1783, upon the resignation of William Pater- 
son, he was elected by the joint meeting attorney- 
general of the State ; was reelected in 1788, and re- 
signed in 1702, being then succeeded by Aaron D. 
Woodruff During the time he held this office, 
courts of oyer and terminer were held in the differ- 
ent counties, usually twice a year, but in some only 
once, and by virtue of a special commission issued 
by the governor, which designated the judges who 
were to hold it, commonly including two justices of 
the supreme court ; and these courts had their own 
clerks, who kept records of their proceedings, many 
of which have not been preserved. The attorney- 
general attended such of these courts and the courts 
of quarter sessions as he conveniently could, and 
having only a nominal salary of thirty pounds a year, 
derived his support from the fees allowed, which 
were twenty-five shillings for a conviction in a capi- 



122 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

tal case, and fifteen shillings in other cases, and one 
fourth more for services in king's cases, than other at- 
torne}^^ for like services. As costs were then allowed 
to be taxed for motions, etc., when there was an ac- 
quittal, as well as in cases of conviction, the remnne- 
ration of a prosecuting attorney in .criminal cases 
probably averaged quite as much then as now, allow- 
ing for the difference in the value of money. For 
the courts which the attorney-general did not attend 
in person, he was accustomed to appoint deputies. 

Soon after his retirement from the army. Bloom- 
field married Miss Mary Mcllvaine, a daughter of 
Dr. William Mcllvahie of Burlington, and sister (I 
believe) of Joseph Mcllvaine, Esq. He settled in 
that place, and made it his home when not absent in 
the public service. During his life he was much re- 
spected as a man of integrity, and great courtesy of 
manners, "benevolent in little things," as it is termed 
most happily by Chesterfield. He was mayor of the 
city several years, and lived in the style of a gentle- 
man of fortune. In 1783 he was appointed register 
of the court of admiralty, established by the State. 
In 1793 he was chosen one of the trustees of Prince- 
ton College, a place which he resigned when he be- 
came cx-officio president of the board as governor ; 
and in 1819 he was chosen anew, holding the office 
until his decease. He was a general of militia, and 
in 17?4 took the field as commander of a brigade 
of militia, called into service to quell the Whiskey 
Insurrection in Pennsylvania, proceeding with the 
troops into the immediate neighborhood of Pitts- 
burg, and accomplishing the object intended with- 
out bloodshed. In 1792 he was appointed by the 
legislature one of the presidential electors, and gave. 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 123 

his vote with his associates for Washington and 
Adams. In 1796 he was not appointed an elector, 
perhaps because thus early he had shown that he 
was not favorable to the election of Adams, the 
Federal candidate. 

During his residence in Burlington he was an 
active member and president of the " New Jersey 
Society for the Abolition of Shivery." This society 
was very different from those abolition societies 
which have sprung up in modern times, and may be 
truly stated to have been fanatical in their character ; 
whose benevolence has been justly characterized as 
"a benevolence of hate," who for the attainment 
of their object did not hesitate to revile the Christian 
Church, and, to use their own language, "spit upon 
the constitution" that protected them ; and who were 
permitted by the supreme ruler of the universe to 
accomplish a good end by unholy means. And this I 
say to record my protest against one of the most com- 
mon errors into wdiich fallible men are prone to fall, 
that the end sanctifies the means. The societies of 
1780 took no measures to aid the slaves in escaping 
from their masters, but confined themselves to pro- 
tectina: them from abuse, and to aidino; their manu- 
mission by legal proceedings. Writs of habeas cor- 
pus w'ere sued out, and many negroes claimed as 
slaves were declared by the supreme court of the 
State to be free ; indeed, it appears by a pamphlet 
published by the society, that it was held that a mere 
promise of the master to free his slave, was sufficient. 
These decisions probably produced the act of 1798, 
regulating slavery, and prescribing a formal mode of 
manumission, which remained in force until the act 
of 1804 altered it in part, and provided for the 



124 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

gradual abolition of slavery. In 1794, several of the 
societies met at Philadelphia, Bloomfield being one of 
the representatives of the Jersey society, and adopted 
resolutions and addresses strongly objecting to the 
continuance of slavery, and advocating its speedy 
abolition. 

Whatever may have been his previous leaning, 
General Bloomfield, in 1801, took a decided stand 
on the side of the Republicans, as a supporter of Mr. 
Jefferson, and presided at a meeting of that party, 
held at a place then called Slabtown, now Jackson- 
ville, near Mount Holly, and afterwards when elected 
governor, was called by his violent opponents, who 
accused him of being a deserter, the " Slabtown 
governor." The charge of desertion was no more 
applicable to him than to a majority of his polit- 
ical friends. They had great reverence for the vir- 
tues and judgment of Washington, and so long as 
he remained at the head of affairs, and indeed during 
his life, were reluctant to oppose any measure he was 
led to sanction, even when they thought he had fol- 
lowed unsafe counselors. But when the party calling 
themselves Federalists became more and more violent 
and proscriptive, as they did during the presidency of 
Adams, it was to be expected that many of the true 
friends of well regulated liberty would desert them. 
It appears that Bloomfield, as one of a committee of 
the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, Colonel 
Ogden and General Giles being the others, reported 
an address to President John Adams, on the fourth of 
July, 1798, which was unanimously adopted, in which 
they address him, as they say, " for the purpose of 
expressing our entire satisfaction with his administra- 
tion of the government, and in particular as it relates 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 125 

to the injuries and insults which had heen received 
from the French RepubUc, as also of making assur- 
ance of our readiness again to take the field in obe- 
dience to any call of our country, in vindication of 
its national honor, and in support of that independ- 
ence, for the establishment of which we patiently en- 
dured the toils, hardships, and dangers of an eight 
years' war." 

The main object of this address was to express 
their resentment of the arrogant conduct of Fi-ance, 
and to show their willingness as soldiers, again to take 
the field. Many of those who ranged themselves on 
the republican or democratic side, were no doubt car- 
ried away with an undue favor for the leaders of the 
French Revolution ; but this was not the case with 
all, and probably not even of a majority of them. 
And it must be remembered that those justly ob- 
noxious measures, the sedition and alien laws, had 
not then been passed, nor had Hamilton exposed the 
weakness inherent in the character of John Adams, 
as he afterwards did. 

It is certain that a political change had become in- 
evitable at the opening of the present century, and 
in the providence of God, a man was raised up, en- 
dowed with the opinions and the talents necessary to 
lead the movement. The best abused politician the 
country has produced, was certainly Thomas Jeffer- 
son. Whatever opinion we may now form of his polit- 
ical principles, — and it must be admitted that like 
most great reformers he held some of them in ex- 
cess, as for instance, when he wrote, " God forbid we 
should ever be twenty years without a rebellion ; 
what country can preserve its liberties, if rulers are 
not warned from time to time that people preserve 



126 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the spirit of resistance," — he was no demagogue, but 
a true patriot, who thoroughly beheved the doctrines 
he inculcated, and did not profess them merely to win 
the popular applause. From the beginning to the 
end of his career he never fjiltered, but adhered to his 
opinions with undeviating firmness. This obvious 
trait of his character, joined to his great influence 
over the opinions of others by his conversation and 
his writings, for he never shone as a speaker, was in- 
deed what made him so extremely obnoxious to those 
from whose hands he snatched the reins of power; 
who hated him because they feared him, and knew he 
could not be won by flattery, nor terrified by menaces. 
The other great man of that day, and in some 
respects the superior man of the two, was Alexander 
Hamilton. He favored a strong government, and re- 
lied especially upon the influence of the money power 
of the country to secure it. As is so well stated by 
Mr. Van Buren, in his work entitled " Inquiry into the 
Origin and Progress of Political Parties in the United 
States," the wonder is, considering their origin and 
training, that Jefferson was not the aristocrat and 
Hamilton the democrat. But the contrary was the 
fact. Neither of them \yere Anti-federalists, in the 
sense of being opposed to the adoption of the consti- 
tution prepared by the convention ; but they were, 
both of them, dissatisfied with some of its features for 
opposite reasons. Hamilton did perhaps more than 
any other man to secure its ratification, but he doubt- 
ed its success, and became the acknowledged leader 
of those favorable to such a construction of it, and to 
such measures as it was supposed would strengthen 
the government formed under it. Every implied 
power was to be stretched to the uttermost. His 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 127 

mind dwelt habitually upon great ideas ; but at the 
same time he was, as described by his friend, Governeur 
Morris, "more a theoretic than a practical man." He 
said to Mr. Jefferson, " it is my opinion, though I do 
not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present 
government is not that which will answer the ends 
of society, by giving stability and protection to its 
rights, and it will probably be found expedient to go 
into the British form. However, since we have under- 
taken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, 
whatever my expectations may be." He was re- 
garded as the leader of the Federal party by most of 
its prominent members (Mr. x\dams and a few of his 
friends excepted), was freely applied to for advice, 
and gave it quite as freely when it was not asked as 
when it was. As late as 1802, in a letter to Morris, 
he designates the constitution as " a frail and worth- 
less fabric." 

Mr. Jefferson, giving an account of his going to 
Philadelphia, after his return from France, to take 
upon himself the office of secretary of state, says : 
" The president received me cordially, and my col- 
leagues and the circle of principal citizens apparently 
with welcome. The cou.rtesies of dinner parties 
given me, as a stranger newly arrived among them, 
placed me at once in familiar society. But I cannot 
describe the wonder and mortification with which 
the table conversation filled me. Politics were the 
chief topic, and a preference of kingly over repub- 
lican governments, was evidently the favorite senti- 
ment." This sort of preference was by no means 
universal amono; the Federalists. Most of them were 
not only devoted, honest patriots, but believers in a 
republic. Many, however, had no faith in such a 



128 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

government. My classical teacher, when I was a 
youth, often told me if I lived to old age, I should 
live to come under the dominion of a kino*. 

O 

As I have said, a change was inevitable ; a social 
as w^ell as a political change. The influence of the 
kingly government under which the colonial subjects 
so long lived, was more or less apparent in all the 
arrangements of society. Laws of etiquette as to the 
preference certain classes were entitled to in going to 
a dinner table, and in composing social parties, had 
great influence over many minds. Even our well to 
do farmers considered the laborers they employed as 
an entirely different class, and some of them were 
opposed to their being taught even to read and write. 
I well remember that this sentiment was openly ex- 
pressed by more than one in my boyhood. Every 
effort was made during several of the first 3^ears of 
the conflict by the federal families to put those of the 
other party under a social ban ; and in this way the 
families of brothers and sisters were sometimes so 
divided as to cease all friendly intercourse. 

The extent to wdiich the change was carried by the 
ultimate success of the democratic party, is dwelt 
upon by Goodrich, a Federalist himself, in his recollec- 
tions of a lifetime. He says, " The change in manners 
had no doubt been silently going on for some time ; 
but it was not distinctly visible to common eyes, till 
the establishment of the new constitution. Powder 
and cues, cocked hats and broad-brims, white top- 
boots, breeches, and shoe-buckles, signs and symbols 
of a generation a few examples of which still lingered 
among us, finally departed ; while short hair, panta- 
loons, and round hats with narrow brims, became the 
established costume of men of all classes. Jefferson 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 129 

was, or affected to be, very simple in his taste, dress, 
and manners. He wore pantaloons instead of 
breeches, and adopted leather shoe-strings in place 
of buckles. These and other similar thinirs, were 
praised by his admirers, as signs of his democracy ; 
a certain coarseness of manner, supposed to be en- 
couraged by the leaders passed to the led. Rude- 
ness and irreverence were at length deemed demo- 
cratic, if not democracy." One of the Federal papers 
of the day attempted to ridicule Mr. Jefferson, be- 
cause he sometimes rode on horseback, unattended, to 
the capital, and hitched his horse to a post, like any 
other citizen. 

The ascendancy of General Hamilton over the 
Federal party, composed of the educated and busi- 
ness men of the day, was the result of his intellectual 
greatness. That sagacious observer, Talleyrand, in 
conversation with two Americans, Mr. Ticknor and 
Mr. Van Buren, spoke of him as the ablest man he 
became acquainted w^ith in America, and was not 
sure that he might not add without injustice, or that 
he had known in Europe. But he could brook no 
opposition. When a very young man, much trusted 
by Washington as a part of his military family, he 
took exception to something the general did, and 
left the situation. In 1793, when secretary of the 
treasury, he announced to the President, that con- 
siderations relative both to public service and his 
own dignity had brought his mind to the conclusion 
to resign his office, at the close of the next session of 
Congress. In 1800 he pubUshed, in his own name, a 
letter " concerning the public conduct and character 
of John Adams," which undoubtedly did much to 
prevent his reelection, and secure the success of Mr. 



130 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Jefferson. What, would have been the result had the 
latter died in 1804, instead of Hamilton, who sacrificed 
his life to his fear of tarnishing his name as a soldier, 
in his duel with Burr, we cannot now pretend to con- 
jecture. The great leader of the one party was 
taken away, while the head of the other was spared 
to extreme old age. The party thus despoiled soon 
lost its hold upon the affections of the people, and 
after an unavailing contest of twenty years, ceased 
to exist, while the other grew in strength, and so 
impressed its principles upon the public mind, that 
during man}'' years, a candidate for the place of chief 
mao-istrate of the nation deemed no recommenda- 
tion to the p6ople could be strdnger than the an- 
nouncement that his political principles were those 
of Jefferson. And now the party that rules the coun- 
try has not only adopted the old name of Repub- 
lican, but carries many of its old maxims and prin- 
ciples to excess, as in England the Tories, under the 
lead of D'Israeli, lately endeavored to outbid their 
old opponents the Whigs and Radicals, by introdu- 
cing an extent of popular suffrage from which the 
others had shrunk. 

An objection to Mr. Jefferson, strongly urged by 
many good people, was, that he was an infidel, and 
to elevate him to the presidency would be equivalent 
to a banishment of the Bible and all its precepts. I 
have now in my possession a file of letters, addressed 
to my father, as a man known to have great rever- 
ence for religious things, from several clergymen of 
his acquaintance, strongly adjuring him to abstain 
from the support of so bad a man. He was not, how- 
ever, without the support of several excellent minis- 
ters, who agreed with him in adhering to Jefferson ; 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 131 

not indeed so much for the sake of the man, but 
for the sake of the great principles they believed 
to be involved. And the folly of the demonstrations 
indulged in by the good men wedded to the Federal 
party was shown, when in their old age the rival 
candidates corresponded in friendly terms, and it was 
found their religious opinions were curiously identi- 
cal. Both had a reverence for God the Creator ; 
but both rejected Christ as a divine mediator. 

One of Mr. Jefferson's innovations upon what were 
considered the monarchical forms introduced by Wash- 
ington, led to bad results, and will sooner or later 
oblige some president, sufficiently bold and strong in 
the affections of the people, to return to the first 
usage. In a conversation I had with Mr. Buchanan 
during the last year of his presidency, when I met 
him at Bedford Springs, he introduced the subject, 
and declared very emphatically that it would be 
impossible for. the President much longer to per- 
mit every applicant for office to appeal to him per- 
sonally, as was now the practice. Several of the 
presidents, it is believed, were literally killed by this 
pressure upon them. Even in Mr. Jefferson's time, 
it was not thought decent to introduce the subject, 
unless he himself invited it; but he broke down the 
barriers of reserve, which were the only effectual 
guards to prevent it. I have always understood that 
the present practice began with Monroe. It would 
seem that General Grant is making some effort to 
correct this evil, but apparently with but indifferent 
success. He has stirred up the hostility of those 
senators who desire to retain their accustomed pat- 
ronage ; but it remains to be seen whether he will 
persevere, and establish a much needed reform. 



132 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

That the objects had in view by the democratic 
republicans, in their opposition to the party in 
power, were in the highest degree wise and benevo- 
lent, will be perceived by a recurrence to their pub- 
lished reasons. In an address by Ebenezer Elmer, 
published in the spring of 1801, he writes of the Re- 
publican party : — 

" They have been perversely abused. Because they talk of 
equal rights, they are accused of holding a pernicious leveling prin- 
ciple. But the representation is not correct. They do not even 
dream of destroying the natural inequality among men, for they 
know that this is wholly impossible ; nor would they annihilate the 
inequality which arises from different acquirements, for this would 
be unjust. But the precise idea is, that so fur as political institu- 
tions are concerned, in the formation and regulation of society, a 
moral and legal equality should be established, as far as practicable, 
as a kind of counterpoise to the natural and physical inequalities 
which continually exist." 

Whatever may have been the controlling motives 
that influenced General Bloornfield, it is certain that 
he became an undeviating adherent of the demo- 
cratic party. This party did not succeed in New 
Jersey, at the contested election held in 1800, in 
electing a majority of the members of the legislature, 
who at that time held in their own hands the ap- 
pointments of presidential electors, and gave the 
vote of the State for Adams, although a majority of 
the voters of the State were democratic, and elected 
their candidates to Congress. In the ftill of 1801, 
the legislature was democratic, and at a joint meet- 
ing held on the thirty-first day of October of that 
year, Joseph Bloomfield received thirty votes for 
governor, against twenty cast for Richard Stockton. 

In 1802 the parties were equally divided, so that 
on the first ballot Bloomfield received twenty-six 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 133 

votes and Stockton twenty-six ; and on the second 
ballot there was a like result; on the third ballot 
Aaron Ogden was substituted for Stockton, but there 
was no change in the vote. An attempt was made 
to compromise, the Federalists offering, in a written 
correspondence between committees of the two par- 
ties, to allow the Democrats to take their choice of 
electing the governor or the senator, whose place 
was also to be filled, if they would agree to give the 
other to the Federalists. But the Democrats, under 
the lead of William S. Pennington, afterwards gov- 
ernor, refused the proposition ; and the consequence 
was that the State had no governor during that 
year, the duties of the office being performed, agree- 
ably to the constitution, by the democratic vice-pres- 
ident of the council, John Lambert. The next year 
Bloomfield had thirty-three votes, and Richard Stock- 
ton seventeen; and in 1804 he had thirty-seven, and 
Stockton sixteen votes. Afterwards he was reelected 
up to 1812, without opposition. 

I have heard from one of the old lawyers, op- 
posed to him in politics, that when he first presided 
in the court of chancery he made a short address to 
those present, saying that he was a Republican, and 
did not desire to be addressed by the title of excel- 
lency. Mr. Samuel Leake, an old and rather eccen- 
tric lawyer, immediately rose and made him a formal 
address, with much earnestness and solemnity, say- 
ing : — 

" May it please your excellency : your excellency's predecessors 
were always addressed by the title ' your excellency,' and if your 
excellency please, the proper title of the governor of the State 
was and is your excellency ; I humbly pray, therefore, on my own 
behalf, and in behalf of the bar generally, that we may be permitted 
by your excellency's leave, to address your excellency, when sit- 



134 REmNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ting iu the high court of chancery, by the ancient title of your ex- 
cellency." 

The Federal lawyers did not give him credit for 
sincerity in the wish he expressed about his title. 
However that may have been, the title was contin- 
ued, and was never afterwards objected to. He 
sealed his letters, and some of his official documents, 
with his private seal, a very handsome coat of arms, 
an impression of which is affixed to a commission as 
master in chancery, issued to my father. 

It cannot be said that Governor Bloomfield had 
high qualifications for the position of chancellor ; 
but it is believed that he was distinguished for indus- 
try and probity, and that he succeeded in giving 
general satisfaction by his decrees. The business 
of the court of chancery considerably increased dur- 
ino; the time he sat in that court ; but none of the 
opinions delivered were reported until some years 
after his retirement. 

War was declared against Great Britain in May, 
1812, and .soon afterwards Bloomfield was appointed 
by President Madison a brigadier-general in the 
army designed for the invasion of Canada. His brig- 
ade marched to Sackett's Harbor, and early in the 
spring of 1813 a part of his troops, under the com- 
mand of General Pike, crossed into that province, 
and made an attack on Fort George, but were re- 
pulsed, and General Pike was killed by the fall of 
stone from the blown-up magazine. A nephew of 
the general, who was a lieutenant in the 15th regi- 
ment, originally commanded by Pike, was killed in 
that attack. But it does not appear that General 
Bloomfield ever gained any laurels as a military 
commander. With General Dearborn, like himself 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD. 135 

an officer of reputation in the army of the Revolu- 
tion, he was soon withdrawn from active duty on the 
frontiers, and assigned to the command of a military 
district, whose head-quarters were at Philadelphia, 
He remained in the service to the end of the war. 

The blunders of the democratic administration, in 
the measures adopted and the men selected to carry 
on the war against Great Britain at the commence- 
ment of the conflict in 1812, can hardly be under- 
stood now. They were such, however, as were to be 
expected in the case of a nation which for thirty 
years had been directing its energies to the accumu- 
lation of wealth. They were the same in character, 
and produced very much by the same causes, as the 
disasters that befell the British army during the first 
year of the war against Russia in the Crimea. But 
beside these causes, it must be acknowledged that 
our president, James Madison, perhaps in many re- 
spects the ablest statesman our country has known, 
was singularly deficient in administrative ability. 
The qualification most needed by an American pres- 
ident — the ability to discern the capabilities of his 
subordinates — he was destitute of He commenced 
a war with a power the most dangerous for us to en- 
counter of any then in existence ; with a secretary of 
war who was as deficient in military knowledge and 
spirit as himself — a Dr. Eustis, of Massachusetts. 
And when his incapacity was fully demonstrated, he 
summoned to his aid John Armstrong, the author of 
the celebrated Newburgh letters, at the close of the 
Revolutionary War, who, whatever his talents, could 
not command and did not deserve the confidence 
of the country. The generals selected to command 
a newly raised army were old men, who, however 



136 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

gallant as soldiers they may have been in their 
youth, had been too long engaged in peaceful pur- 
suits to enter late in life upon a new career as war- 
riors. As a secretary of state or a member of Con- 
gress, Mr. Madison was a far abler man than James 
K. Polk; but. the latter surrounded himself with a 
cabinet composed of the men best fitted for their sta- 
tions, and carried through the war against Mexico 
almost without a single disaster. General Bloomfield 
was a worthy man, and a good governor ; but he was 
not the fit man to head the forces sent to invade 
Canada. 

Seldom, however, in the history of the world has 
a war so poorly waged ended so happily as our war 
with Great Britain. In my opinion it was a war 
that could not be avoided ; and was in part made 
necessary by the extent to which Mr. Jefferson had 
gone in his endeavors to avoid it, and by his neglect 
to provide against such a contingency. When the 
war waged in Europe ended, our enemy, although 
thus left to direct his whole force against us, was ex- 
hausted, and longed for peace. The people of Amer- 
ica, including the strongest advocates of the war, had 
had enough of it ; and the administration was wise 
enough not to insist upon the formal abandonment 
by the British government of those pretensions and 
practices, in regard to the impressment of oar sea- 
men, and the interference with our commerce which 
had produced the war, relying upon wdiat proved to 
be a well-founded expectation, that the resistance we 
had made would prevent their future recurrence. 
And to crown all, a splendid victory closed the con- 
flict, and won for us the respect of the world. With 
the war also ended the federal party. They had 



AARON OGDEN. 137 

gone too far in their opposition, and could not retrace 
their steps. James Monroe was elected president by 
the vote of all the States but three; and in 1820 he 
was reelected with but a single dissentient elector, 
who voted for John Quincy Adams. 

General Bloomfield returned to his residence in 
Burlington, and in 1818 had the misfortune to lose 
his wife, with whom he had lived in unbroken har- 
mony and affection. A few years after he married 
again, a lady who survived him. 

In 1826 he was elected, on the general ticket nom- 
inated by the Democrats, a member of Congress, and 
was reelected in 1818, serving from March 4, 1817, 
to March 4, 1821. He was very appropriately placed 
at the head of the committee on revolutionary pen- 
sions, and introduced and carried through the bills 
granting pensions to the veteran soldiers of the Rev- 
olution and their widows. He died in 1825, the in- 
scription on his tomb recording simply the truths 
that he was a " a soldier of the Revolution ; late gov- 
ernor of New Jersey ; a general in the army of the 
United States ; he closed a life of probity, benevo- 
lence, and public service, in the seventieth year of 
his ao;e." 

Aaron Ogden, familiarly known and designated as 
Colonel Ogden through life, was governor one year, 
commencing in October, 1812. He was the great- 
grandson of Jonathan Ogden, who was one of the 
original associates of the Elizabethtown purchase, and 
who died in 1732, at the age of eighty-six. He had a 
son named Robert Ogden, and his son Robert, the 
father of Colonel Ogden, resided at the old borough 
of Elizabethtown, and filled several offices of honor 



138 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JEOSEY. 

and trust ; among others that of surrogate for the 
County of Essex. He was a member of the council, 
and several years speaker of the House of Assembly. 
Being appointed one of the delegates from the legis- 
lature of New Jersey, to the convention that met in 
New York, in 1765, to protest against the stamp act, 
he, with the chairman of the convention, refused to 
sign the protest and petition to the king and parlia- 
ment, upon the ground that it ought to be transmit- 
ted to the Provincial Assembly, and be presented to 
the government of Great Britain through them. This 
so displeased his constituents, that he resigned his 
seat in the Assembly ; saying, in the address he de- 
livered on the occasion : " I trust Providence will, in 
due time, make the rectitude of my heart, and my in- 
violable affection to my country appear in a fliir light 
to the world, and that my sole aim was the happiness 
of New Jersey." 

When the War of the Revolution commenced, he 
took a firm part on the side of freedom, and was one 
of the committee of vigilance for the town. His chil- 
dren were all ardent Whigs ; Robert Ogden, Junior, 
was a lawyer, and had a large practice, and was called 
the " honest lawyer." He was disabled by a fall in 
childhood, which prevented him from active service 
in the field ; but he was a quartermaster and com- 
missioner of stores, in Avhich capacities he rendered 
good service, giving his time, talents, money, and 
credit freely, to supply the army. Matthias was ap- 
pointed lieutenant-colonel of the first regiment in 
the Jersey line, in December, 1775, and was wounded 
in storming the heights of Quebec, and distinguished 
throughout the war as colonel of the regiment and 
brigadier-general by brevet. 



AARON OGDEN. 139 

Towards the close of the Revolution, Robert Ogden, 
Senior, retired to Sparta, in the County of Sussex, 
where he owned large tracts of land, and where he con- 
tinued a life of usefulness, to both church and state, 
until the year 1787, when he died at the full nge of 
threescore and ten. His son Aaron was born in the 
year 1756, at Elizabethtown, and carefully educated, 
having graduated at Princeton College in 1773, before 
he had attained the age of seventeen. After leaving 
this institution he engaged himself as an assistant to 
Mr. Francis Barber, who was the teacher of a cele- / 
brated grammar school, at which Judge Brockhol-fc^^ 
Livingston, and Alexander Hamilton were pupils. But 
the times soon became too exciting to permit the 
quiet pursuits of liternture. In the spring of 1777 
both pupils and teacher entered the army. Ogden 
was appointed a lieutenant and paymaster in the first 
regiment, and continued in service to the termination 
of the war, as aid-de-camp, captain, and brigade major 
and inspector. This last named office, now abolished, 
was, during the Revolutionary War and long after- 
wards, the most important of the staff offices of the 
brigade. 

Near the close of his life, protracted to a good old 
age. Colonel Ogden had occasion to draw up an ac- 
count of his military services during the Revolution, 
in which he states with modest simplicity the particu- 
lars of the most important actions in which he partic- 
ipated, only differing from the official accounts in that 
he goes more into detail. His gallantry as a soldier, 
and his veracity as a man, were never questioned. 

In the winter of 1775-76, he entered a volunteer 
corps formed at Elizabethtown. Lord Sterling, who 
commanded a regiment of militia there, prepared an 



140 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

expedition to take a large ship at sea, plying off 
Sanely Hook, while the Asia man-of-war, a ship of 
the line, was lying in the bay of New York, of which 
the volunteer company formed a part. They em- 
barked in small crafts, boarded the ship, and made her 
their prize. She proved to be the Blue Mountain Val- 
ley, of three hundred tons, loaded with coal, flour, 
and live stock for the British troops at Boston. This 
exploit was commended in a formal resolution of the 
Congress at Philadelpiiia. 

He was with his regiment, commanded by his 
brother, at the battle of the Brandywine, in Septem- 
ber, 1777. The regiment was posted in advance, with 
directions to cross the river and commence the attack 
intended by General Washington, as soon as he 
should receive the orders to that effect. The colonel 
in his impatience sent Lieutenant Ogden to inform 
the general that everything was ready. He found 
him surrounded by his staff, but w^as informed that 
the intelligence he had received was contradictory, 
and he therefore did not give the expected order. 
It appeared that Hamilton had reconnoitered the 
enemy, and had informed the general correctly, that 
they were in full march towards his right, but at the 
same time an express arrived from General Sullivan, 
who had been placed on the right for the express 
purpose of observing the movements of Howe's army, 
stating tliat there were none of the enemy there. It 
was afterwards stated to Ogden by Colonel Morris, an 
aid of Sullivan's, that the scouts sent out by him had 
spent their time drinking at a tavern, and made a 
false report, upon the receipt of which Sullivan wrote 
his dispatch upon a drum-head. And owing very 
much to this circumstance, the British forces were 



AARON OGDEN. 141 

enabled to turn the right of the American army, and 
win the battle. 

At Monmouth he received the personal direction 
of General Washington, at the most critical period 
of the engagement, to reconnoitre an important posi- 
tion, all the circumstances of which he has fully de- 
tailed in his memoir. Upon his report, Wasliington 
gave the order to advance, which determined the re- 
sult of the action. Durins; the movements which 
succeeded. Captain Ogden, as aid to General Maxwell, 
and as brigade major, had a large share in the com- 
mand of the brigade. At the battle of Springfield 
he greatly distinguished himself, by holding a very 
superior force of the enemy for some time in check ; 
and more particularly by his judicious disposition of 
the militia, who, at a late period of the engagement, 
were subjected to his command. 

In the following winter. Maxwell's brigade was 
quartered in Elizabethtown, in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the British army, when an attempt was made 
by General Grey, of that army, to surprise them, 
by an expedition which came over from Staten 
Island. While Major Ogden was sleeping in the 
same room with Maxwell, they were informed that 
one of the pickets had heard the rowing of boats. 
He volunteered to reconnoitre ; and approaching a 
house near the meadows, he observed a light ; slack- 
ing his pace, the night being very dark, he found 
himself all at once surrounded by British soldiers, 
and within reach of a sentinel, who ordered him to 
dismount. Determined at all hazards to alarm his 
troops, he immediately wheeled and put spurs to 
his horse, expecting a shot; he received from another 
sentinel a thrust from a bayonet into his chest. He 



142 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

had strength, however, to reach the garrison, about 
two miles distant, and gave the ah-irm. General Max- 
well's remark was, " The pitcher that goes oftenest 
down the well will come up broken at last." By 
proper attention and care, at his home, he recovered 
from this wound, which was a very dangerous one. 
His timely alarm prevented the enemy from doing 
any mischief. While confined to his room he was 
frequently visited by the ladies of» the town, ac- 
quainted with him from the days of his boyhood. 
One of the " on dits " of the place was, that upon 
the occasion of one of these visits he received a 
wound from one of Cupid's darts, deeper and more 
lasting than that inflicted by the enemy. This wound 
w^as healed two years afterwards, by a happy mar- 
riao-e with the author of it. 

o 

In the campaigns of 1779 under General Sullivan 
against the hostile Indians, in the western part of 
New York, Ogden served as aid to General Maxwell. 
After the resignation of Maxwell, Captain Ogden com- 
manded a company of light infantry, and served in 
the corps commanded by Lafayette. He was selected 
by General Washington to carry a flag of truce to 
General Sir Henry Clinton, the commander-in-chief 
of the British forces then at New York. He received 
his instructions from Lafayette, which were, that if 
possible, he should get within the British lines at 
Paulus Hook, and in a private way inform the com- 
manding officer, that he was directed to say that if 
Clinton would in any way permit Washington to get 
hold of General Arnold, Major Andre should be im- 
mediately released. He contrived to make the com- 
munication to the commanding officer at the supper 
table, who immediately rose from the table, and re- 



AARON OGDEN. 143 

turned in about two hours, with a message from Clin- 
ton that " a deserter was never given up." 

Captain Ogden was with Lafayette in Virginia, 
when Lord Cornwallis made his attempt " to catch 
the boy," as he called the young marquis ; and the 
captain had the good fortune to cover the retreat of 
Lafayette, by throwing a body of the infantry and 
militia placed under his command into a wood, in the 
line of march of the right wing of the British army, 
which was rapidly advancing to turn Lafliyette's left 
wing, and posting them behind a fence. This caused 
the British to halt and reconnoitre, and consume time 
in forming their line of attack ; and when they ad- 
vanced into the woods, they were met by a galling 
fire, and so retarded, as to give time to the American 
forces to get beyond their reach. He took an active 
part in all the fighting at the siege of Yorktown, and 
was commended for his conduct by General Wash- 
in s^ton. 

When Lafayette made his visit to the United 
States, long afterwards, in a letter to the secretary of 
war, he made honorable mention of Captain Ogden 
and his valuable services, wdiile serving under him 
during the campaign in Virginia. 

When the war ended, he w^as among those who, 
after they had borne the toils, the perils, and the 
sacrifices of a long, and at times apparently a des- 
perate contest, laid down their arms and retired, most 
of them to private life and poverty. In June, 1783, 
the officers of the Jersey line convened at Elizabeth- 
town, and agreed to become members of the Society 
of the Cincinnati. In 1824, he succeeded General 
Bloomfield as the president of this society, and con- 
tinued the president until his death, when he was 



144 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

succeeded by Ebenezer Elmer, the last surviving offi- 
cer of the New Jersey line. 

The Society of the Cincinnati was organized at the 
cantonment of the American array, on the Hudson 
River, in May, 1783, and its constitution then adopted, 
as follows : — 

" It having pleased the Supreme Governor of the Universe in the 
disposition of liuman affairs, to- cause tlie separation of the colo- 
nies of North America from the domination of Great Britain, and 
after a bloody conflict of eight years, to establish them, fi'ee and 
independent and sovereign States, connected by alliances founded on 
reciprocal advantages with some of the great jn'iuces and powers 
of the earth : 

" To perjietuate, therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast 
event, as the mutual friendships which have been formed under the 
pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by 
the blood of the parties, the officers of the American army do here- 
by in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute, and combine 
themselves into one society of Friends, to endure as long as they 
shall endure — or any of their eldest male posterity, and in failure 
thereof, to the collateral branches who may be judged worthy of be- 
coming its supporters and members. 

" The officers of the American army having generally been taken 
from the citizens of America, possess high veneration for the char- 
acter of that illustrious Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, and 
being resolved to follow his example, by returning to their citizen- 
ship, they think they may, with propriety, denominate themselves 
the Society of the Cincinnati. 

" The following principles shall be immutable, and form the basis 
of the society. 

" An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights 
and liberties of human nature, for which they have fought and bled, 
and without which the high rank of a rational being is a curse in- 
stead of a blessing. 

" An unalterable determination to promote and cherish between 
the resijective States, that union and national honor so essentially 
necessary to their happiness and the future dignity of the American 
empire. 

" To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the 



AARON OGDKN. 145 

officers ; this spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, 
and j)articularly extend to the most substantial acts of beneficence, 
according to the ability of the society, towards those officers and 
their families who unforLuiiately may be under the necessity of re- 
ceiving it. 

" The general society will, for the sake of frequent communica- 
tions, be divided into sate societies, and these again into such dis- 
tricts as shall be directed by the state society." 

The otlier provisions were regulations, of detail. 
Kach s'ate .society meets on the fourth diiy of July, 
yearly ; and the general soi/iety, conipo.ied of dele- 
gates, on the first Monday of May, omie in three 
3'ears. To form the finids, each officer was required 
to pay Into the treasurer of the Ktate society one 
month's pay. 

Tliere were originally nine or ten state societies ; 
but in consequence of the cla-nor that was laised 
against them on account of their badge and their 
herelitary principle, three or four of the societies have 
been disbanded. JSix still remain, namely, Massachu- 
setts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and South Carolina, each of which has pi-eserved its 
separate fund, even South Carolina, aUliough much 
crippled, not being extinct. 

The oliicers entitled to be members were those 
who had resigned with honor after three years' ser- 
vice, or had been deranged by reforms in the army; 
and the elder and male branch of such as had died, 
ami those who had served to the end of the war. 
Generals and colonels of the French army were in- 
formed that they were considered members. Honor- 
ary members are also admitted by the state society, 
not exceeding one to every four of the regular mem- 
bers. 

The badge adopted by the society is a bald eagle of 

10 



146 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

gold, bearing a medal on its breast, the head and tail 
of silver, suspended by a deep blue watered ribbon, 
edged with white, descriptive of the union of France 
and America. Those in actual use are generally all 
of gold, but are not uniform in size and appearance. 
They are worn now only at the meetings of the 
society ; and some of the members have declined to 
do more than suspend the ribbon at the button-hole. 
The eagle of the president general is adorned with 
several jewels, and was procured and presented to 
the society by the French naval officers and seamen. 
The motto on the medal and seal, which have on 
them a figure of Cincinnatus, is " Omnia reliquit ser- 
vare rempublicam." 

All the societies have preserved more or less of 
their funds, and most of them have so used them 
that they have accumulated. The fund of the New 
Jersey society amounts now to thirteen thousand 
five hundred dollars, vested in United States bonds, 
the interest of which is used to defray the expense 
of the meetinsis, and to distribute in aid of the fami- 
lies of deceased members. It appeared by a report 
made in 1866, that since its formation there has been 
expended for the expenses of the society the sum of 
$11,821, and for benevolent purposes, the sum of 
$25,'629. About twenty-five members, several of 
whom reside in other States, are now on the roll, 
about twenty of whom attend the annual meetings. 

Colonel Ogden was chosen vice-president of the 
general society in 1825, and the president in 1829 — 
succeedin«: in that office to Generals Washington, 
Hamilton, C. C. Pinckney, and Thomas Pinckney. At 
the late meeting of the general society in May, 1869, 
all the seven state societies were represented. Ham- 



AARON OGDEN. 147 

ilton Fish, the secretary of state of the United States, 
is now the president general. Colonel Popham, of 
New York, was the last surviving original member 
of the Cincinnati. 

When dismissed from the army with the other offi- 
cers, at Newburg, in 1783, Major Ogden returned to 
Elizabethtown. On his way there, as he has been 
heard to say, the thought arose, " I am in my 27th 
year without a profession ; what shall I do ? " and 
soon he said to himself: " I am resolved what to do ; 
I will enter the office of my brother Robert at Eliza- 
bethtown, and read law." This resolution he carried 
out, spending the winter at his fother's in Sparta, and 
devoting his time assiduously to the study of Black- 
stone. He was licensed as an attorney in September, 
178i, the regular period of study no doubt being 
shortened in consideration of his military services, as 
has been done in other cases. In due time he was 
licensed as a counselor, and in 1794 was made a ser- 
geant at law. 

Soon after his licensure he commenced the practice 
of law at Elizabethtown, and in October, 1787, mar- 
ried Elizabeth, daughter of John Chetwood, Esq., the 
lady who had been the object of his affections from 
the time he was wounded. He soon had a good prac- 
tice as a lawyer ; and whatever may have been his 
own reflections on the subject, I think, in view of what 
afterwards befell him, it is to be regretted that he did 
not adhere to that profession during his life. He was 
an accomplished lawyer, and took a high position at 
the bar. Mr. Coxe's Reports begin in 1700, and it 
appears that he was much employed in the most im- 
portant cases argued before the supreme court. 

Adopting the language of an address delivered be- 



148 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

fore the societies of Princeton College, in September, 
1839, by Aaron Ogden Dayton, Esq., as just and ap- 
propriate, it may be said of Mr, Ogden, that, " Pro- 
fessing strong analytical and logical powers of mind, 
his disposition always led hitn to an examination of 
the principles by which a case was governed, and 
havintj: made himself master of these, he reasoned 
from them with great clearness and force, and was 
seldom surprised or thrown off his balance, by the 
argument of his adversary. Although his first re- 
liance was upon a knowledge of the elements which 
entered into the question, he was by no means negli- 
gent of the cases in which those elements had been 
applied. Seldom was there a more industrious lawyer. 
He never thought his duty discharged to his client or 
himself, while a single corner of the case committed 
to his care remained unexplored. He studied the 
cause on both sides, and made most copious notes for 
his arsrument and authorities. To learning and in- 
dustry, he united great ingenuity and fertility of re- 
sources, quickness and accuracy of discrimination, and 
an eloquence, which at times, when he was deeply 
moved or strongly excited, was of a very high order. 
His manner was graceful and impressive ; his voice, 
though not musical, was strong and varied ; his coun- 
tenance had great power and diversity of expression ; 
but more than all this, he understood well the springs 
of human action. lie was an enthusiastic admirer, and 
might almost be called a pupil of Shakespeare, whose 
works he w\as never weary of perusing. He was an 
ardent admirer of the ancient classical authors; and 
his conversation with literary friends was frequently 
embellished by ready and felicitous quotations fiom 
their works. He is one among many proofs of the 



AARON OGDEN. 149 

great advantage a student derives from becoming an 
instriKjtor of others. His critical knowledo:e and ac- 
curate recollection of the classics he always attributed 
principally to that cause. The taste never forsook 
him, and often led him back, during the busiest part 
of his life, to the fountain at which he had drunk with 
so much pleasure in his early years." I well recol- 
lect, that the first time I saw him, at a fourth of July 
dinner of the Cincinnati, in 1812, of which I partook, 
according to the custom of the society, as an heir ap- 
parent to the membership, he questioned the ele- 
gance of the society's motto, insisting that although 
perhaps good Latin as it stood, it should have been 
''omnia reliquit ad servaiidani rempublicam." He waa 
elected a trustee of Princeton College in 1803, and 
again after he had been ex-officio president in 1817, 
holding the office until he died. In 1816 he was com- 
plimented with the honorary degree of L.L. D. 

As was natural, considering his early career, his 
talents and disposition were decidedly military. To 
the last years of his life it beamed in his eye ; it 
was seen in his erect carriage and measured step ; it 
animated his conversation, and in the visions of his 
dying bed transported him back to the stirring 
scenes of the army and the camp. When in 1797 a 
provisional army was raised, in consequence of the 
hostile proceedings of the French government, he was 
appointed colonel of the 15th regiment, and held 
this rank for several months, and until the additional 
troops were discharged. From this appointment, 
which in effect put an end to his professional life, ho 
derived the title of colonel, by which he was after- 
wards usually addressed. 

He was one of the prominent leaders of the 



150 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Federalists in New Jersey, and in February, 1801, 
was chosen by the legisLiture senator of the United 
States, for two years, in the room of Schureman, 
who resigned". This place he held, and was an 
influential member of the senate, during two ses- 
sions. Upon the expiration of his term, the repub- 
lican party had succeeded in carrying a majority 
of the members of the legislature, and, of course, 
he was not reelected. He held, however, at this 
time, and had for several years held the office of clerk 
of the County of Essex, which at that time did not 
interfere with his practice as a lawyer. But in De- 
cember, 1801, an act of the legislature was passed 
declaring that if any person holding an office under 
the State had been elected a member of the senate or 
house of representatives, and had taken his seat, the 
commission under the State should be considered 
vacant, unles she should resign his seat in Congress 
within twenty days after the passing of said act. 
Colonel Oo:den declinino; to resi2:n, the legrislature 
elected Jacob Parkhurst clerk, and he took posses- 
sion of the office. A writ of quo warranto was 
thereupon prosecuted by Ogden, and two judges, 
namely, Smith and Boudinot, who were Federalists, 
pronounced opinions in his favor, Kirkpatrick taking 
the other side. 4 Hals. R 431. But the court of 
errors reversed the judgment of the supreme court, 
and Parkhurst not only continued to hold the office, 
but his expenses in defending his position were paid 
by the State. 

Accustomed as we now are to the frequent changes 
in the politics of New Jersey, and the consequent 
changes of the office holders, we can hardly appre- 
ciate the feelings of the Federalists, when the power 



AARON OGDEN. 151 

was first wrenched from their hands, and when, not' 
withstanding their strenuous efforts to regain their 
position, they found themselves growing weaker, 
year by year. Scarcely a lawyer of eminence in this 
State could be counted on the republican side ; and 
in fact most of the educated men and men of prop- 
erty in the State were Federalists. They held all the 
offices. It was not until the War in 1812, that, with 
the aid of a few timid Democrats, who were induced 
to join them under the name of " Friends of Peace," 
they could again obtain a majority in the State. In 
the fjxU of 1812 they nominated full tickets for elec- 
tors and members of Congress, and succeeded in ob- 
taining a majority in both houses of the legislature. 
Aaron Ogden was elected by the joint meeting gov- 
ernor, thirty votes being cast for him, and twenty- 
tv/o for William S. Pennington. 

In 1807 an act had been passed requiring the 
electors of president and vice-president to be chosen 
by a vote of the people on the first Tuesday of No- 
vember. Members of Congress had from the begin- 
ning been elected by a general ticket. The peace 
party of the United States had nominated De Witt 
Clinton, before this time a Democrat, who now (it is 
said by James A. Hamilton, in his " Reminiscences," 
page 44) declared, "that the policy of the federal 
party, which was that adopted by Washington and 
Adams, was the only course of measures which could 
promote the interests and preserve the honor of the 
country ; I well know the views and purposes of the 
democratic and jacobin parties, and have no confidence 
in them ; as president I would administer the govern- 
ment upon the system of Washington and Hamilton." 
This was satisfactory to such of the Federalists as were 



152 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

"willing to trust him ; but it induced Governor Jay to 
ask, " Mr. Clinton, do your democratic friends know 
that these are your opinions and purposes?" To in- 
sure, as they hoped, the election of Clinton, the legis- 
lature hastened to repeal the act of 1807, and to pro- 
vide that the electors should be chosen by themselves 
in joint meeting. This act did not become a law until 
the 29th of October, and the succeeding Tuesday was 
the day of the election by the people. Express riders 
were sent out with certified copies of the new law, 
who did not reach some of the counties until the vot- 
ing had actually commenced. 

It should not be forgotten that one federal mem- 
ber was found wise and firm enough to resist this, 
under the circumstances, wrong and injudicious meas- 
ure ; and to vote against it from its inception to its 
final passage, regardless of the entreaties and re- 
proaches of his friends. This was James Parker, of 
Perth Amboy, who died recently at the age of ninety- 
two, after a life of great public usefulness. He be- 
came a member of the legislature in 1806, and was 
elected eleven times to that place, taking an active 
part in the business, and especially in establishing 
the public schools. He was one of the commissioners 
to settle the boundary between the States of New 
Jersey and New York, in 1807, 1827, and 1833, and 
from his thorough knowledge of all the circum- 
stances of the case, had great influence with the com- 
missioners of this State, and in the final adjustment 
of the controversy. It may be remarked, however, in 
p;is3ing, that all the New Jersey commissioners en- 
tered upon and concluded that negotiation under the 
opinion that the title to the land on the shore from 
hiu'h water mark to low water mark, was in the o\v)i- 



AARON OGDKN. 153 

ers of the adjoining'' upland, and not, as it has shice 
heen ImW, in the State. That the State would un- 
dertake to sell the shore to railroad companies or 
others, was not then contemplated. Mr. Parker was 
among the Hamilton Federalists who gave his support 
to Jackson in preference to John Quincy Adams, hav- 
incr been chosen an elector in 1828. He was a repre- 
sentative in Congress from 1833 to 1837, but after- 
wards acted with the Whigs. It would be well for 
the country if his example in resisting his party, 
when he believed them to be clearly wrong, should 
be followed by more of our leading politicians, who 
might thus in many cases defeat measures urged by 
extremists, to the public injury. 

De Witt Clinton failed to be elected, and the peace 
part}^ came to an end ; so that in October, 1813, Colo- 
nel Of'-den was succeeded as governor bv William S. 
Pennington. While he held the office, President 
Madison, who, in consequence of the ill success of 
the army, had displaced his secretary of war, and put 
Armstrong at the head of that department, nominated 
Colonel Ogden as a major-general, with the purpose, 
as it was understood, of giving him the command of 
the forces operating against Canada, and his nomina- 
tion was unanimously confirmed by the senate. Arm- 
strong was well acquainted with his military capacity, 
and there is no reason to doubt that he would have 
proved a good commander. But although his predi- 
lections were for a military life, and it was with great 
reluctance he took the resolution of declining the ap- 
pointment, his political situation was such that he 
coidd not with propriety do otherwise. He put his 
decision upon the ground that he could be more 
useful in aiding to repel the enemy, then threat- 



154 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ening to land an invading army upon our shore, 
as commander-in-chief of the mihtia. In this capac- 
ity he was active in organizing volunteer corps for 
the defense of New York, and would no doubt have 
taken the field in person had the emergency re- 
quired it. 

Up to this time he was a prosperous man, and had 
a happy home, where he dispensed an unbounded 
hospitality. But he had become concerned in a busi- 
ness which, although at first promising great success, 
after years of vexatious conflict ended in his ruin. 
In conjunction with Daniel Dod, he engaged in the 
business of running a steamboat between Elizabeth- 
town and New York. This brousi^ht him into a conflict 
with Livino'ston and Fulton, to whom the leu-islature 
had o-ranted an exclusive rvAit to naviiirate the waters 
of that State with steamboats for a term of years. In 
1813, the legislature of New Jersey had passed an act, 
somewhat retaliatory in its character, granting ex- 
clusive privileges in the waters of New Jersey to Dod 
and Ogden. This produced an application from Liv- 
ingston for the repeal of this act, and the parties with 
their counsel and witnesses were granted a hearing 
at the bar of the house, in January, 1815, the cele- 
brated Thomas Addis Emmet appearing and being 
heard for Livingston, and Samuel L. Southard and 
Joseph Hopkinson for Dod and Ogden. Several days 
were consumed in the argument and hearing of tes- 
timony ; and the result was, that the law complained 
of was repealed. And besides this conflict with Liv- 
ingston and Fulton, the laws for the protection of 
steamboats in New Jersey became complicated with 
the question of jurisdiction over the waters of the 
Hudson and the bay of New York, between the two 



AARON OGDEN. 155 

States. From year to year laws were passed, having 
both these disputes in view. When I first entered 
the legishxture in the fixll of 1820, I endeavored, with- 
out success, however, to aid Colonel Ogden in obtain- 
ing a modification of one of these laws, which I 
thought bore against him unjustly; and I then for 
the first time became well acquainted with him. 

His troublesome adversary was Thomas Gibbons, a 
lawyer who had amassed a large estate in the south, 
and who, about the year 1812, had removed to Eliza- 
beth town, where he resided until 1825, dying in New 
York in 1826. He set up an opposition steamboat, 
and engaged in the war with untiring zeal and deadly 
hostility. Litigation and conflict of the most vexa- 
tious and trying character ensued, by which, although 
the personal character of Colonel Ogden remained 
untarnished, he was harassed, and finally defeated. 
His exertions during these conflicts were very great; 
everything conspired to rouse him to vigorous action. 
The great importance of the questions involved, a 
firm conviction of the justice of his claims, a deep 
sense of personal injury, the resistance of a proud 
spirit against tyrannical oppression, his fortune and 
the happiness of his family at stake upon the issue, 
all conspired to call forth his utmost efforts. Every 
energy of body and mind were brought into action. 
But his efforts to sustain himself, mighty as they 
were, proved unavailing. His fortune was sunk, his 
spirits were broken, domestic affliction supervened 
by the loss of his wife in 1825, and he never recov- 
ered the position from which he fell. 

After the repeal of the law of New Jersey, he was 
compelled to enter into an arrangement with Living- 
ston and Fulton, who authorized him to run his boat 



156 KEJIINISCKN'CES OF NEW JERSEY. 

in the waters of New York. In order to avail him- 
self of this arrangement, it became necessary for him 
to file a bill in the court of chancery of New York 
against Gil)bons, and that court sustained him by pro- 
hibiting the running of his opponent's boat, and the 
court of appeals of the State of New York affirmed 
the decree in his favor. But Gibbons carried the case 
into the supreme court of the United States, and that 
court reversed the decision of the New York court; 
holding that as Gibbons' boat was licensed to carry 
on the 'coasting trade, under the laws of the United 
States, that was a regulation of commerce paramount 
to any law of a State, by virtue of which his boat had 
a right to run from one State to another, although 
forbidden to do so by the local law. By this decision 
the great principle was established, in the language 
used by Mr. Webster in the argument, that '•' the com- 
•merce of tlie United States is a unit." The steamboat 
monopoly was overthrown. 

The adversary with whom he had to contend was 
devoid of scruples, delighted in warring with poisoned 
arrows, and unhappily had at his command not only 
great wealth, but political and personal rivalries that 
made it impossible to withstand him. The now 
celebrated millionaire of New York, Cornelius Van- 
derbilt, was one of the captains he employed, and was 
much trusted by him. 

About the year 1816 Gibbons undertook to chal- 
lenge Colonel Ogden to a personal combat; and when 
he was treated with the contempt he deserved, and his 
communication would not be received, he proceeded 
with a horsewhip in his hand, to fasten a libelous 
handbill on the colonel's office door, when lie was 
himself absent, but in the view of his family. This 



AARON OGDKN. 157 

produced an .action of tra-ipi^s a;jjainst liitn, in wliich 
the jury rendered a verdict in Colonel 0,s^den's favor, 
and assessed the damages at five thousand dollars. 
The application to set this verdict aside is reporte 1 in 
2 South. R. 518. The court declined to interfere ; but 
a bill of exceptions had been taken at the trial, the 
case was removed by writ of error iuto the courr. of 
errors, then consistinsj; of the legislative councl, and 
a majority was procured to reverse the ju Igment. 
Upon a second trial, the jury rendered a verdict for 
fifttien hundred dollars. 

In 18-9 he removed his residence to Jersey City, 
and in the winter of that year he was arrested for debt 
in the city of New York, and remained in confinement 
two or three months, declining entirely the oflers of 
friends to settle the claitn. When this action becime 
known at Albany, the legislature of New York, — and 
it is said through the volunteer exertions of A iron 
Burr, — passed a law not only forbidding the future 
imprisonment for debt of a revolutionary soldier, but 
making it so to operate as to discharge Colonel Ogden 
forthwith. A similar law was passed in New Jersey. 

He was among those old Federalists, who, being 
ardent admirers of General Hamilton, regarded John 
Quiucy Adams as a renegade, and therefore preferred 
and supported Jackson for the presidency. He was 
to some extent provided for, not only by his pension 
as an old soldier, but by an act of Congress creating 
a custom-house ottice at Jersey City, which he held 
durinii: the remainder of his life. The State of New 
Jersey granted him a tract of land opposite that city, 
and below the low water mark of the river, which, 
however, did not prove to be of much value. He 
died in 1830, at the age of eighty-three. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GOVERNORS I HAVE KNOWN. 

WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. MAHLON DICKERSON. ISAAC H. WIL- 
LIAMSON. PETER D. VROOM. 

T\7^ILLIAM SANDFORD PENNINGTON, governor 
and chancellor from 1813 to 1815, was elected 
by the joint meeting of the legislature, in October, 
1813. When I was examined for license as an at- 
torn ej^, in May, 1815, 1 recollect that, according to the 
usage at that time, I called on him with my recom- 
mendation, signed by the justices of the supreme 
court, and he signed my commission. He resided 
then with his family in the government house, now 
the State Street Hotel, and was the last governor who 
did this. His successors for many years rented the 
house to some person with whom they boarded when 
in Trenton. None of them permanently resided in 
that place. 

Governor Pennington was the great-grandson of 
Ephraim Pennington, one of the original settlers of 
Newark, emigrants from Connecticut. His name is 
subscribed to the fundamental agreements regulating 
the settlement, dated June 24, 1667 ; one of which 
was that none but church-members should be admit- 
ted freemen or have a vote; and that they would 
with care and diligence provide for the maintenance 
of the purity of religion professed in the congrega- 
tional churches. 



WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 159 

The 2:reat-o:randson was born in Newark, in the 
year 1767. But little is known now of his early life. 
It is understood that he was apprenticed to his moth- 
er's brother, Mr. Sandford, a fliriner, after whom he was 
named, who proposed to leave him some of his prop- 
erty; but on the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
War, the uncle was a loyalist, and, threatening to 
change his will if the nephew joined the rebels, a 
controversy arose which ended in canceling the in- 
dentures, and the young man soon entered the army. 

The tradition in the judge's family always has been 
that his first service was as a non-commissioned officer 
in a company of artillery, and that at one of the en- 
gagements with a detachment of the British army, he 
was found by General Knox, almost alone, actively 
loading and firing apiece of artillery, with such signal 
bravery as to attract the attention of the general, and 
to induce him to promise him a commission on the 
field. It appears that he was commissioned as a lieu- 
tenant of the second regiment of artillery, April 21, 

1780, to take rank from September 12, 1778. But 
little is now known of the particulars of his service, 
except so fixr as they are stated in a private journal, 
commencing May 4, 1780, and ending in March, 

1781. During most of this time he was with the 
park of artillery in the neighborhood of West Point. 

He notices the conflict at the short hills, near 
Springfield, June 23, 1780, but did not himself par- 
ticipate in it. Upon the occasion of a visit to Newark 
in July, he states : " The power I suffered my passions 
to have over me when I came home, upon finding my 
horse carelessly lost, how I threw my sword down and 
broke the hilt, etc., is not fit to be recorded. How- 
ever, I found my horse after much fatigue." He 



160 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

mentions sleeping in n hay-rick at Newark, on one 
occasion, for fear of being surprised by rei'ugees. 
The usual camp rumors of successes or disasters at 
other places are recorded, most of which tuined out 
to be very erroneous. In September, he records that 
plundering and marauding had become so common in 
the army, that his excLdlency the commander in-chief 
had ordered a soldier convicted of the crime to be 
executed, and declared his intention to show no iavor 
to any person convicted of so iniamous a crime. Of 
the date of Septendjer 2(i, news was received of the 
treason of Arnold and the capture of Andi'e. "Mon- 
day, 2d October, 1780. — This day, at twelve o'clock, 
Major Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, 
was executed in camp as a spy. He behaved with 
great fortitude. Although sell-preservation and the 
laws and usages of nations justifv, and poHcy dictates 
the procedure, yet I must conceive most of the officers 
in the army felt for the unibrtunaie gentleman." 

" Wednesday, October 16, I spent a principal part 
of the day in Newark, visiting my female acquaint- 
ances in this place. The ladies in town, to do them 
justice, are a very sociable, agreeable set of beings, 
whose company serves to educate tlie mind, and in a 
manner to compensate the toils of a miUtary hfe." 
He mentions dining with General Howe and General 
Knox. "Tuesday, Decend^er 20. — This day 1 had the 
honor to dine at his excellency Geneial Washiiigton's 
table, and the pleasure of seeing for tlie first time the 
celebrated Mrs. Washington. Instead of the usual 
subjects of great men's tables, such as conquering of 
worlds and brinij-ino; the wiiole human race into sub- 
jection to their will, or of the elegance of assemblies 
and balls, and the sublimity of tastes in dress, etc., the 



WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 161 

simple but very laudable topic of agriculture was in- 
troduced by his excellency, who, I think, discussed the 
subject with a great degree of judgment and knowl- 
edge. The wine circulated with liberality, but the 
greatest degree of decorum was observed through the 
whole course of the afternoon." January 6, 1781, the 
mutiny of the Pennsylvania troops at Morristown is 
mentioned. "Monday, 22d, we received information 
that the Jersey line had followed the example of 
Pennsylvania in mutinying, in consequence of which a 
detachment of artillery consisting of three 3-pounders, 
to be commanded by Captain Stewart, was ordered to 
parade immediately. I was ordered to join the above 
detachment, vice Ailing. 25th, — This day the de- 
tachment marched to Smith's Cove, and halted for the 
night. 26th. — This day we marched to Ringwood, 
and joined a detachment under Major-general Howe. 
Saturday, 27th. — This day the above detachment 
marched at one o'clock, and at daylight surrounded 
the Jersey encampment near Pompton, where the mu- 
tineers were quartered. No other terms were offered 
to them, than to immediately parade without their 
arms. General Howe likewise sent them word by 
Lieutenant-colonel Barber, that if they did not comply 
in five minutes, he would put them all to the sword ; 
rather than run the risk of which they surrendered. 
Upon which the general ordered a court-martial in the 
field to try some of their leaders ; three of whom, 
namely, Grant, Tuttle, and Gilmore, were sentenced 
to suffer death. Grant, from some circumstances in 
his behavior, was pardoned. Tuttle and Gilmore were 
immediately executed. The mutineers returned to 
their duty, and received a general pardon." 

" February 8. — This afternoon an entertainment, 
II 



162 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was given by Lieutenant-colonel Stevens, of the sec- 
ond regiment, his excellency General Washington, the 
Marquis de Lafayette and families, and the officers of 
the park of artillery. His excellency and the marquis 
left us at dark, upon which we immediately opened a 
ball, and spent the evening very agreeably, but la- 
mented the absence of the ladies of our acquaintance, 
who would have graced the ball had they been there, 
and rendered the entertainment perfectly consum- 
mate. Mrs. Stevens was the only lady that graced 
the assembly." 

His service after this year I have not been able to 
ascertain, except that the park of artillery to which 
he belonged took part in the siege of Cornwallis 
at Yorktown, in Virginia. It appears that he was 
wounded, but when and where is unknown. He left 
the service with the rank of captain by brevet. 

After the war he carried on the business of a hatter 
for a short time, and is supposed to have worked, at 
that trade before he entered the army. He soon 
engaged in mercantile business in Newark ; and in 
1797 was elected a member of the Assembly from the 
County of Essex, remaining a member of that body 
three years. In 1801 he was elected a member of 
the council, and again in 1802. Upon the great di- 
vision of parties which occurred about this time, he 
and his brother Samuel warmly espoused the repub- 
lican side, in opposition to the federal party of that 
day, and continued to be leaders of their party for 
the ensuing twenty years. In the fall of 1820, when 
a successful effort was made to assuage the fierce 
party spirit which had prevailed, I had the pleasure 
of meeting Samuel Pennington in the House of As- 
sembly, where we heartily cooperated in leaving the 



WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 163 

responsibility of electing the county officers, then 
mostly chosen in joint meeting of the two houses, to 
the members of the county, without regard to party 
affinities, never interfering if they could agree. His 
brother William was the leader of the Republicans in 
1802, when there was a tie in the joint meeting, so 
that no governor could be chosen during the year. 
As a senator was also to be chosen at this time, the 
Federalists, by their committee, offi^red to the Repub- 
licans their choice of these two offices ; but the re- 
publican committee, headed by Pennington, were too 
confident that a strong current was running in their 
favor to accept this compromise, so that during this 
year both the offices were left vacant. 

Beino; of an active mind, Pennino-ton entered the 
office of Mr. Boudinot as a student of law, and in May, 
1802, was licensed as an attorney. In February, 1804, 
he was elected by the joint meeting an associate jus- 
tice of the supreme court, less than two years after 
he was licensed as an attorney, and before he could 
become a counselor. The Republicans had but few 
lawyers belonging to their party, and were obliged to 
take the best they had or appoint their opposers, — 
as matters then stood, a thing not to be thought of. 
The vacancy filled by Pennington was occasioned by 
the promotion of Andrew Kirkpatriek to be chief jus- 
tice, who not being a politician acted with the Repub- 
licans, and was accepted as belonging to their party, 
although never accredited as a partisan. In the fall 
of 1804, William Rossell, a man of good judgment and 
excellent character, a saddler, with but the slightest 
knowledge of law, was appointed an associate justice 
of the supreme court. The latter never acquired the 
confidence of the bar ; but Judge Pennington, who 



164 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was a strong minded man and diligent student, was 
soon accepted as a good judge. He was appointed re- 
porter in 1806, by virtue of a law then recently passed. 
Kirkpatrick, who was an accomplished lawyer, of 
course led the court ; but Pennington did not hesitate 
when he thought him wrong, to differ, and seldom 
failed to support his opinions by sound reasons. I re- 
member being present in court, before I was licensed, 
and for the first time, when an important cause had 
been noticed for trial at the bar, and when a jury of 
view and many witnesses were in attendance from 
Cumberland. The plaintiff not being prepared to 
bring on the trial, his counsel objected to doing so, on 
the ground that the defendant's attorney had neg- 
lected to add the similiter to the plaintiff's replication 
tendering an issue. The chief justice held this indis- 
pensable, and Judge Rossell concurred; but Judge 
Pennington held that the similiter was so purely a 
matter of form that it might be at any time added. 
Now, as is known to the bar, a statute has declared 
even the form unnecessary. The consequence of this 
decision was to save the plaintiff from the payment 
of heavy costs. 

When the peace party obtained a majority in the 
fall of 1812, Pennington was the candidate of the re- 
publican, or as they were then and afterwards called, 
the democratic party, and received twenty-two votes 
in the joint meeting for governor, against thirty cast 
for Colonel Aaron Ogden. In 1813 he received thirty 
votes for that office, while Ogden's vote was reduced to 
twenty. In 1814 Pennington received twenty-nine 
votes and Ogden twenty-three. 

In the year 1815 Robert Morris, who held the place 
of judge of the United States district court for New 



WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 165 

Jersey, and had for several years been in such bad 
health as to be unable to hold the court, died. Pen- 
nington was nominated by President Madison to suc- 
ceed him, and being confirmed by the senate, held 
that office until his death, residing, as he had after he 
ceased to be governor, at Newark. 

At this time the district' court held two terms in 
each year at Burlington and two at New Brunswick. 
The court rarely sat more than one day, very little 
business coming before it. In 1824 Joseph M'llvaine, 
who had been for several years the district attorney 
for the United States, having been elected to the sen- 
ate of the United States, I was appointed district at- 
torney, in his place, and thus became more intimately 
acquainted with Judge Pennington. His son Wilham 
(afterwards governor) was clerk of the court. Our 
united efibrts, 1 remember, were always unavailing, to 
induce him to keep his court open one day beyond 
what was absolutely necessary for the transaction of 
the public business, and thus to permit us to receive a 
little more daily pay. He belonged, indeed, to that old- 
fashioned race of politicians, now apparently extinct, 
who thought first of their duty to the country, and did 
not subordinate that to the interests of themselves or 
their friends. Judge Washington, with whom he sat 
in the circuit court, although an incorruptible judge, 
was much more liberal (lavish, perhaps, is the proper 
designation), saying, very pleasantly, that Uncle Sam 
was rich, and a public debt was a public blessing, — 
a common sentiment then among the old Federalists, 
upon the idea that a heavy debt tended to strengthen 
the general, or, as was then the favorite phrase, the 
federal government. 

During the five years I held the office of district 



166 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

attorney, no grand jury was summoned in the United 
States district court; but such a jury was convened 
twice in each year in the circuit court. But one in- 
dictment, however, was drawn by me, and that was for 
an alleged obstruction of the mail, which, as it turned 
out on the trial, happened from the fact that Ball 
(a well known deputy sheriff of Essex County) could 
not win a bet he foolishly made with Reeside's driver, 
that his horse could outtrot the splendid team of 
full blooded animals then on the route between Eliz- 
abeth and Newark. The charge against Ball, sup- 
ported by evidently hard swearing, was by way of 
offset against an indictment of the driver in the state 
court, for purposely driving his heavy stage upon 
Ball's light carriage, and upsetting him into the ditch. 
Since the War of the Rebellion the criminal business 
of the United States courts has been much increased, 
and the tendency is to increase it still more. This, 
added to the business of the bankrupt court, has made 
the district court a very busy and very important tri- 
bunal. 

The business transacted in Judge Pennington's 
court consisted of a few informations for violations of 
the revenue laws, and suits for debts due the United 
States and the postmaster-general. I remember but 
one decision of the judge important enough to be 
stated, and that was the construction of the New Jer- 
sey statute, enacting that a scroll or other device, by 
way of seal to an instrument for the payment of 
money, should be of the same force as a wax seal, so 
as to bring within that description the official bond of 
a postmaster. One case which went before Judge 
Washington upon a writ of error, and is reported in 
4th Washington Circuit Court Reports, presented a 



WILLIAM S. PENNINGTON. 167 

complexity of pleading and issues so singular and so 
complete, that the judge took the papers to Philadel- 
phia, as he said, to show some of the lawyers there 
a perfect common law record. It was an action at 
the suit of the Postmaster-o;eneral vs. Reeder and 
his sureties, the pleading in which had been filed 
when I took charge of it. The declaration, in accord- 
ance with the practice, was simply upon the penalty 
of the bond, without assigning the special breaches. 
Ten pleas were interposed, to some of which there 
were demurrers, and to some an issue of fact was 
joined, one of them being a general allegation of 
fraud. The demurrers were all held to be well taken. 
Upon the trial of the issues of fact before a jury, made 
up mostly of residents in Trenton, it became pretty 
manifest that, owing to the sympathy felt for Mr. 
Reeder's sureties, the jury on the issue of fraud, 
which consisted only in long forbearance to prose- 
cute, would be sure to disregard the judge's charge, 
and render a verdict for the defendant. By the ad- 
vice of Richard Stockton, who was associated with me 
as counsel for the government, I demurred to the evi- 
dence. Defendant's counsel insisted that it was op- 
tional with them whether they would join in the 
demurrer, but the judge ruled they were bound to do 
so, and the jury was dismissed. Upon the argument 
of this demurrer, it appeared one of the pleas upon 
which issue was taken was fully proven, so that it be- 
came necessary to insist that the plea itself was rad- 
ically bad, and presented no defense, and that the 
case was substantially the same as if the jury had ren- 
dered their verdict finding it true, when it would be 
open to the plaintiff to move for judgment non obstante 
veredicto, as it is technically called. This view was 



168 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

sustained by the judge, and a judgment ordered for 
the plamtifF overruling all the pleas. It then became 
necessary to assign the breaches and assess the dam- 
ages upon a writ of inquiry, which was done, and a 
final judgment entered for the plaintiff. After an 
elaborate argument before Judge Washington, he 
affirmed this judgment. 

Although, as I have remarked, Judge Pennington 
was an ardent Democrat, there is every reason to be- 
lieve that, had he lived until the formation of the 
whig party, he would have sympathized with them, 
as his sons and most if not all his family connections 
and friends afterwards did. He looked upon John 
Quincy Adams as the true republican successor of 
Jefferson and Madison. I remember hearing him, 
at a Cincinnati dinner, about the beginning of Mr. 
Adams' presidency, say, that if Jackson should be 
elected president, he should feel his neck every morn- 
ins:, to find whether his head was still in its right 
place ; to which old General Heard responded, very 
forcibly, " You can't lose it a day too soon." He died 
September 17, 1826; carried to his grave with the 
respect of all who knew him, as a reliable friend, an 
incorrupt and just judge, and an honest man. 

Mahlon Dickerson, two years a justice of the su- 
preme court and two years governor and chancellor, 
was a descendant of Philemon Dickerson, who with 
his brothers emigrated from England and landed in 
Massachusetts in 1638. He was admitted a" freeman 
of the town of Salem in 1641, and removed to South- 
old, Long Island, 1672. He had two sons, Thomas and 
Peter. Thomas had four sons, all of whom moved to 
Morris County, New Jersey, about 1745, and from 



MAHLON DICKERSON. 169 

these the Dickersons and Dickinsons, as some write 
their names, of this State are descended. Mahlon was 
the grandson of one of these, and the son of Jonathan 
Dickerson, and was born in 1771. He graduated at 
Princeton College in 1789. In 1793 he was licensed 
as an attorney, but does not appear to have taken 
the degree of counselor. The next year after his 
graduation, he joined Captain Kinney's troop of horse, 
and served in the expedition sent into Pennsylvania 
to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection. 

He had two brothers, one of whom became a physi- 
cian and the other a lawyer, and they appear to have 
all taken up their residence in Philadelphia. Mahlon 
studied for a time in the office of James Milnor, after- 
wards quite distinguished as a member of Congress, 
and a clergyman of the Episcopal Church at New 
York. He was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania 
in the year 1797. 

In politics he was a zealous Republican, and for 
some time wrote for the " Aurora " newspaper, edited 
by William Duane. In 17S9 this party elected Chief 
Justice M'Kean governor of Pennsylvania for three 
years, and he was reelected twice afterwards, holding 
the office nine years, then ineligible for another term. 
Dickerson was chosen a member of the common 
council, and in 1802 was appointed by Mr. Jeffer- 
son a commissioner of bankruptcy, in company with 
A. J. Dallas, John Serjeant, and Joseph Clay, leading 
Supporters of the Jefferson administration. In 1805 
Governor M'Kean appointed him adjutant-general, 
which office he resigned in 1808, to take the place of 
recorder of the city, a judicial office, held, as then con- 
stituted, during good behavior, and as such a mem- 
ber of the mayor's court, exercising criminal jurisdic- 



170 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

tion in the city, and having besides the power and 
jurisdiction of a justice of the peace. 

Governor M'Kean was at this time somewhat ad- 
vanced in life, had held high offices, and was naturally 
irascible and self-willed. His powers under the ex- 
isting constitution of the State were very extensive, 
the appointment of the state and many of the county 
offices being vested in him, without the necessity of 
submitting them to any other branch, and the judi- 
cial offices held during good behavior, with the pro- 
vision that they might be removed by the governor 
upon the request of two thh'ds of each branch of the 
legislature. It was said that upon one occasion, 
when such a request was made, the governor appear- 
ing to hesitate, a committee of those in favor of the 
removal waited on him, and submitted a formal argu- 
ment to the effect that the word " may," as used in 
the constitution, made it his duty to comply; but after 
hearing them to the end, he broke up the conference 
by declaring that in the case before him, may meant 
won't. Durino; the o-overnor's second term, he so en- 
tirely disregarded the attempted dictation of the more 
violent Democrats, among other appointments confer- 
ring the place of chief justice on William Tilghman, 
one of the federal judges of the United States circuit 
court, that he was openly attacked by the " Aurora," 
and an attempt was made to impeach him. But 
many of the more intelligent and conservative Repub- 
licans, including Dallas, Serjeant, Ingham, and Dicker- 
son, supported M'Kean, forming what they called the 
constitutional republican party, but called by Michael 
Leib, a noted politician of that day, a tertium quid 
party, from which they were commonly designated as 
quids. Dickerson was a zealous and active supporter 



MAHLON DICKERSON. 171 

of this party, and wrote many po-litical squibs in the 
newspapers that supported it. Their governor was 
reelected, by the aid of the Federahsts. 

His father having died, leaving what proved to be a 
very valuable real estate, Dickerson took up his resi- 
dence in 1810, in Morris County, for the purpose of 
taking charge of it. In 1812, and again in 1813, he 
was elected a member of the Assembly, from Morris 
County. While thus a member, he was chosen by the 
joint meeting in November, 1813, justice of the su- 
preme court, in the place of Peniiington, elected gov- 
ernor. He received the twenty-nine votes of his party, 
the others, numbering twenty, voting for Isaac H. Wil- 
liamson. He was also appointed reporter, but did not 
accept the appointment, and in fact no case decided 
while he was on the bench has been reported. It has 
been well understood that he had no love for the pro- 
fession of a lawyer, nor for the position of a judge or 
chancellor. He was chosen governor without opposi- 
tion in 1815, and was re-chosen in 1816. But in Feb- 
ruary, 1817, he was chosen senator, no person being 
nominated in opposition ; and in November, 1822, he 
was ao-ain chosen in the same manner. When his term 
acain expired in 1829, a majority of the legislature 
were opposed to him in politics, and Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen was chosen senator for six years. But it 
happened that Ephraim Bateman, who had been sena- 
tor two years, was compelled by illness to resign, and 
a contest arose in filling that vacancy. William B. 
Ewing, a member of the Assembly, was a candidate, 
and Mr. Southard, who still held the place of Secretary 
of the Navy at Washington, was advocated by his 
friends. After many ineffectual votes, the opponents 
of Southard carried a resolution, that he was ineligible 



^u^ 



172 RExMIiNflSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

because his residence was not in the State. The re- 
sult was that a majority of the votes were finally cast 
for Dickerson. 

During the sixteen years Mr. Dickerson held the 
place of senator, he was an influential member of that 
body, ranking among the old-flishioned Republicans, 
opposed to Calhoun and his doctrines, friendly to Wil- 
liam H. Crawford, rather than to Adams or Jackson ; 
but taking sides with Jackson, when things so fell out, 
after much backing and filling, that his party took the 
place of the Democrats. Being largely interested in 
iron mines, he differed from many of his political asso- 
ciates and advocated a high protective tariff. 

In May, 1834, he was appointed Minister to Russia, 
and expected, for some time, to accept the situation, 
and to take his departure for St. Petersburg, but 
finally decided to remain at home, as was understood, 
at the particular request of Mr. Van Buren, to afford 
him his aid in securing his nomination and election 
as President. In June of that year he was taken into 
General Jackson's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, 
and remained in that position four years, when he re- 
signed, and may be said to have retired from public 
life. 

In September, 1840, the office of judge of the dis- 
trict court becoming vacant by the death of Judge 
Rossell, he was appointed to succeed him, and retained 
the office until early in March, >&i4, when he resigned, 
and his brother Philemon was appointed. The latter 
was a member of the house of representatives, where 
parties were very evenly divided, so that it was 
not thought desirable by his party friends that he 
should resign, to prevent which, Mahlon accepted and 
performed the duties of the office about six months. . 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 173 

After this he was for two years president of the Amer- 
ican Institute at New York. He had an ample for- 
tune ; but left no descendants, never having been 
married. He died at his residence in Suckasunny, 
Morris County, in the year 1853, at the age of eighty- 
two. 

Isaac H. Williamson, governor and chancellor from 
1817, to 1829 was born at Elizabethtown, in the year 
1767, the youngest son of an ancient and respectable 
family of that place. He received only a common 
grammar-school education, and studied law with his 
brother, Matthias Williamson, then, and for many 
years, one of the leading lawyers of the State. In 
1791 he was licensed as an attorney, in 1796 as a 
counselor, and 1804 was called to be a sergeant at 
law. 

Continuing to reside at his native place, he soon 
took a high rank as a lawyer and advocate, and had 
a large, and for that day, a profitable business. There 
were in the County of Essex, including Newark and 
Elizabethtown, several able competitors at the bar, 
among whom Col. Aaron Ogden was perhaps, for a 
time, the leader, some twelve years his senior in age. 
When Williamson had reached the head of his pro- 
fession, and Colonel Ogden had allowed himself to be 
diverted to other pursuits, the latter, speaking of their 
early competition, remarked, that he soon found Isaac 
H. Williamson to be pressing on him very hard, and 
the one whose skill and learning he found the most 
troublesome as an adversary. His practice was ex- 
tended into several of the adjoining counties. As the 
deputy of Attorney-general Woodruff, he prosecuted 
the pleas of the State in the County of Morris for 



174 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

several years, with distinguished abihty. The indict- 
ments drawn by him while he held that office, con- 
tinued to be referred to for years, as safe precedents; 
and indeed no lawyer in the State was more accurate 
in all the details of his profession. He once remarked 
to me, while governor,»that he had never been obliged 
to submit to a nonsuit, in any cause which he con- 
ducted as an attorney. He was a diligent student, 
and made himself familiar with all the doctrines of 
the connnon law, by a careful perusal not only of the 
old writers, like Coke upon Littleton, but also of the 
reasoning of the judges in the books of- Reports. 
After I became well acquainted with him, I found 
him by far the most satisfactory adviser on intricate 
questions of law that arose in my practice ; indeed, I 
might with truth say, the only useful adviser I un- 
dertook to consult. His mind seemed so thoroughly 
imbued with the principles of the law, and his memory 
in regard to decided cases so exact, that he seldom 
failed to afford me essential aid ; and he did it always 
with cheerful readiness. 

It may be said without exaggeration, that Mr. Wil- 
liamson was one of the most thorough-bred lawyers 
that ever adorned the bar of New Jersey. His learn- 
ino; was almost entirelv the learnino: essential to a 
great lawyer, which of course was by no means con- 
fined to the mere technical details of the profession. 
He was a diligent reader of history ; but during his 
busy professional life he did not allow his mind to be 
diverted by what is termed light literature ; and he 
altogether abstained from any active participation in 
mere party politics. He was an able and very suc- 
cessful advocate ; and when made chancellor, became 
a great equity judge; but, like Lord Eldon, he was 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 175 

not master of a good style, either in speaking or in 
writing. 

Although never active in politics, he was in early 
life ranked as a Federalist, and did not afterwards at- 
tempt to conceal or deny the fact. But he did not 
sympathize with that party in their violent opposition 
to the war with Great Britain which commenced in 
1812. After the close of that contest, when it be- 
came apparent that a change in the political conflicts 
of the country was about to ensue, he was in the year 
1815 put upon the ticket for member of Assembly, 
from the County of Essex, without his knowledge, 
among the Democrats, — through the influence of the 
Penningtons, as I have heard, who then were the 
leaders in that county, — and was elected a member 
of the legislature. 

Mahlon Dickerson was reelected governor, without 
opposition, at the fill meeting; but at a joint meeting 
held in February, 1817, he was chosen senator, and 
then resigned the office of governor. A few days 
afterwards, Williamson was chosen governor, by a 
vote of twenty-nine in his favor, against twenty-two 
for Joseph Mcllvaine. The question seems to have 
been not political, but between East and West Jersey. 
He was afterwards reelected every year, w^ithout seri- 
ous opposition, until the fall of 1829, when the Jack- 
son pai-t}^ obtained a majority in the legislature, and 
he was superseded by the appointment of Peter D. 
Vroom. More than once, durins; the time he held the 
office, I heard him lament, almost with tears in his 
eyes, that he had been so foolish as to leave the profes- 
sion he loved, and place himself in a position from 
which he was liable at any time to be removed. His 
salary was only two thousand dollars, provided for by 



176 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

a new law every year, supplemented by some fees, — 
a large part of which, I have understood, through the 
defaults of the officers to whom they were paid, he 
never received. 

Prior to his entering upon the duties of chancellor 
and judge of the prerogative court of the State, those 
courts were comparatively unimportant. Occasionally 
an important case was prosecuted in them, but the 
practice was in many respects very loose, and was 
understood by very few members of the bar. From 
1790, until the act of 1799, drawn by Judge Paterson, 
had remedied this and many other defects, witnesses 
were examined before the chancellor, as in trials 
before a jury. Chancellor Williamson made himself 
thoroughly acquainted with the practice of the Eng- 
lish courts of equity, after which ours had been orig- 
inally modeled, and in 1822 prepared and adopted a 
well-digested set of rules, greatly improving the busi- 
ness of the court. It was not until the supplement 
of 1820 to the chancery act authorized a sale of 
mortgaged premises, by virtue of a decree in all cases, 
that it became the common practice to collect a debt 
secured by a mortgage by means of a bill in chancery. 
This change brought a large increase of business, so 
that from that time to the present, owing to the high 
character of most of the chancellors, and to the 
chano-e of the laws in other matters, the court of 
chancery has been deservedly held in high repute, 
and has been a most important part of the judiciary 
system of the State. 

In the year 1820 I was elected a member of the 
House of Assembly, and then became well acquainted 
with Governor Williamson, boarding with him at the 
Government House for several years, when at Trenton. 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 177 

His family residence continued at Elizabethtown. My 
practice as a lawyer in his court was not large, but 1 
appeared before him in several cases of considerable 
importance. His opinions (except in a few cases) have 
not been printed. During liis time there was no re- 
porter of equity decisions. He settled many disputed 
questions, especially in reference to the lien of several 
mortgages ; and so far as 1 am aware, his rulings have 
been since adhered to. 

One case in wdiich I was associated as junior coun- 
sel with Richard Stockton, gratified me very much, 
because the decision in our favor was put upon the 
point made by me, rather thart upon the ground taken 
by my senior. We were for the defendants, in a case 
for the specific performance of a formal contract to 
convey to the complainants one half the water power 
of Cohansev Creek, at Bridgeton. A verbal contract 
had been previously entered into by the owner with 
our clients to convey then> the property, which he 
proceeded to do, after he had executed the formal 
contract to convey it to the complainants. The chan- 
cellor held it to be the true construction of the statute 
of frauds that, although no action could be sustained 
on the verbal contract, it was a complete defense to 
the action to enforce a subsequent contract in writing. 
This was then a new point. The same construction 
has been since adopted by the English court of chan- 
cery. 

I was present at an amusing scene, when Mr. Van 
Arsdale, an old lawyer of Newark, considered to be 
very astute and particular, fell into a trap dexterously 
prepared for him by George Wood, then rising to ce- 
lebrity. He had filed a bill to foreclose a mortgage 
more than twenty years due ; and set out with great 

12 



178 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

particularity several payments alleged to have been 
made on it by the mortgagor. The answer, sworn to, 
drawn by Mr. Van Arsdale, positively denied the al- 
leged payments, and denied that any payments had 
been made. When he took the ground on the argu- 
ment that, after twenty years, payment of a debt was 
to be presumed, the chancellor remarked with an 
amused smile, " How can I •presume a payment which 
the party himself positively denies ? " The dilemma 
seemed then for the first time to be perceived by the 
counsel, and the ludicrous manner in which he ex- 
claimed, " Is my client to lose his money by such a 
trick as that ? " causea a general laugh, in which the 
court could not help participating. 

The most remarkable case in which it was my for- 
tune to be employed while at the bar, and which is 
worth notice as evidence of the great superiority of 
our present court of errors, defective as it is, over the 
old court, consisting of the governor and council, was 
Smith vs. .Wood, a bill in chancery for the sale of 
mortgaged premises, to raise a large sum of money. 
It lasted ten years, not because it was a chancery 
case, — for some common law cases have lasted longer, 
— but from other causes. The facts were complica- 
ted, but not disputed, and the law applicable to it 
was very plain ; but every possible ground of defense, 
begun merely for delay, was lu^ged that could be 
imagined by such men as Wall and Wood. I argued 
it nine times : three times before a master ; once be- 
fore Chancellor Williamson, who went out of office 
before he had time to make a decree ; once before 
Chancellor Vroom, whose opinion is reported in Sax- 
ton Ch. R. 74 ; three times before the court of errors 
and appeals; and once before Chancellor Philemon 
Dickerson. 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 179 

After Williamson went out of office, he was em- 
ployed as counsel with me. When the case was 
ready for argument before the court of appeals, it 
happened that he had been elected a member of that 
court, as a councilor from Essex, and of course could 
not sit on the hearing. Unfortunately, as it seemed, 
he was induced to take part in the argument. The 
case was heard during the sitting of the legislature, so 
that it occurred that, diu'ing part of the time, Mr. 
Williamson was engaged as a legislator in opposing 
one of the bills of the Camden and Amboy company, 
and at another time he argued the cause. Both the 
parties resided in Philadelphia, and had no connection 
with the canal or railroad; but the result was that, 
after ordering a second argument of one of the ques- 
tions raised, the chancellor's decree for the complain- 
ant was reversed by a bare majority, — every member 
of the court who voted in opposition to Mr. William- 
son's argument against the company voted in the 
same way upon the judicial question. Fortunately 
when the crroimds of the reversal came to be stated in 
the decree, as became necessary, the case went back 
for new testimony, and a new decree in our favor, 
which, upon a new appeal under more favorable cir- 
cumstances, was affirmed. 

It may be mentioned that Williamson and Yroom, 
who, as the court was then constituted, presided and 
voted, even upon appeals from their own decisions, 
were alike, in making no effort to sustain their opin- 
ions, except by a formal statement of their reasons, 
and were quite frequently overruled by men who 
knew nothing about law or equity. The well estab- 
lished and still continued practice in the House of 
Lords is, that only those lords who have been edu- 



180 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

cated lawyers vote in judicial cases, so that, during 
the time of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, it was said an 
appeal from his decision amounted only to an appeal 
from Hardwicke as a chancellor to Hardwicke as a 
member of the House of Lords ; but all voted in the 
old court of errors. Until 1799, no appeal from the 
decrees of the chancellor could be* taken; but when 
in that year the act respecting the court of chancery, 
drawn by Paterson, was before the legislature, a clause 
was added, allowing an appeal, and although it was 
strongly insisted that such an appeal was not war- 
ranted by the Constitution of 1776, it was sustained 
by the court, and is still in force. 

The popular vote of New Jersey in 1824, much to 
the surprise of many, was in favor of Jackson for 
president, but the legislature does not seem to have 
had a majority of this party, and Williamson was re- 
elected without opposition. In 1828, at which elec- 
tion Jackson and Adams became the opposing candi- 
dates, the latter received a majority of the popular 
vote, and the legislature was of the same complexion. 
Indeed it can hardly be said that the lines of demarka- 
tion between the supporters of the two parties, were* 
as yet distinctly marked. Williamson was still elected 
governor unanimously. But after the inauguration 
of Jackson in 1829, a violent contest ensued, and the 
result was, that in the fall of that year his friends ob- 
tained a decided majority in both branches of the leg- 
islature. In the joint meeting held for the election of 
governor, thirty-nine votes were cast for Garret D. 
Wall, two for William Chetwood of the Jackson party, 
and only fifteen for Williamson. Mr. Wall declined 
accepting the appointment, and then Peter D. Vroom 
was chosen, as I have heard him say, very unexpect- 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 181 

eclly and against his wishes. He had been formerly 
ranked as a Hamilton Federalist, as were also many 
others who now became snpporters of Jackson. Vroom 
was elected in 1830 and 1831, but in 1832, although 
Jackson carried the popular vote, the legislature had 
a mnjority of " National Republicans," as the party 
opposed to him now called themselves. Mr. Southard 
was chosen governor, but being elected to the Senate 
of the United States in the ensuing February, Elias P. 
Seeley was elected governor, being superseded, how- 
ever, in the fall of that year by Vroom, who continued 
in office until the fall of 183 G, when he declined fur- 
ther service, and was followed by Philemon Dickerson, 
who in 1836 was superseded by William Pennington. 
Failing to be reelected governor in 1829, Mr. Wil- 
liamson returned to the bar, and was soon in full prac- 
tice. He was associated with George Wood in the 
arguments before Judges Ewing and Drake, sitting 
for the chancellor, in the great cause between the two 
branches of the Society of Friends. When his polit- 
ical friends had a majority of the legislature in 1832, 
and it became necessary to choose a new chief justice 
of the supreme court, in consequence of the death of 
Ewing, he could undoubtedly have received the ap- 
pointment, had he consented to be a candidate. I 
had myself a conversation with him for the purpose 
of endeavoring to induce him to do so, but he per- 
emptorily declined, saying, that he had for so many 
years directed his attention exclusively to the rules of 
equity, that he could not meet the expectations of his 
friends, in a situation so entirely different, without a 
severity of application which at his time of life (being 
now aged about sixty-five), he did not dare to under- 
take, and that he much preferred for the remainder of 
his life continuino; at the bar. 



182 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

In the years 1831 and 1832 he was elected a mem- 
ber of the council for Essex County. In 1844 he 
was chosen a member of the convention which framed 
a new constitution for this State, and was unanimously 
elected the president of that body. No other person 
was nominated. For some time he presided with 
great acceptance, but his health failed him, and he 
was obliged to leave, and finally to resign the presi- 
dency before the proceedings were closed. Before 
the close of the year he died at the age of seventy- 
seven 3'ears. Benjamin Williamson, chancellor from 
1852 to 1859, is a son. 

The three portraits that adorn the room of the 
supreme court at Trenton, are those of Richard 
Stockton, Isaac H. Williamson, and George Wood ; and 
no three men who have flourished at the bar in the 
United States, were better entitled to such a distinc- 
tion. 

The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred on 
him bv the trustees of Princeton, not otherwise im- 
portant than as a mark of respect from an intelligent 
body of men, over whom he had presided twelve years. 

This reminiscence of Governor Williamson, who died 
more than twenty-five years ago, reminds me of the 
many pleasant (as well as tedious) hours lawyers 
spent in Trenton, during the earlier years of my prac- 
tice. I frequently, as many others did, travelled in 
ray own conveyance, spending parts of two days on 
the road each way, and seldom going home until the 
business of the term was through. There being no 
branch court, calls for common business were made 
during the first hour of Tuesday and Wednesday, and 
after opinions were delivered on Thursday, continu- 
ously until the list was finished. If contested ques- 



ISAAC H. WILLIAMSON. 183 

tions arose, as. they often did, a junior counsel could 
not move even unlitigated cases, until the second 
week ; and if, relying on this, he was not on hand at 
the beginning, he was liable to lose his opportunity 
altogether. This undoubtedly produced greater soci- 
ability and a stronger esprit dii corps among the bar 
than exists now. We could not go home every af- 
ternoon and return in the morning, as many do now, 
nor did we think of going each man to his separate 
room, but commonly passed our evenings together in 
social converse, clubbing the drink that was some- 
times too freely used at the table, or on other occa- 
sions. It was said that some sat up late at cards, 
gambling pretty badly ; but for myself I can say that 
during more than fifty years, I have never seen a 
pack of cards in a tavern at Trenton. 

Well do I remember how delighted we were to get 
Governor Williamson with us, commonly at the Rising 
Sun Tavern, where the American Hotel stands, and 
how genial and pleasant he was. We were indeed 
sometimes like school-boys on a holiday, and killed 
time by all the means our imaginations could suggest. 
Leaders in this, were Nathaniel Saxton, the chancery 
reporter, generally called Natty ; and Smith Scud- 
der of Elizabeth town, whose sobriquet was "Doctor." 
Songs were sung, old stories revived, and flashes of wit 
sparkled ; each one deeming it a duty to contribute 
as well as he could to the general amusement. We 
did not indulge in " high jinks," like Counselor Pley- 
dell in Scott's amusing pages; but we were often very 
merry without dissipation, and no one seemed to en- 
joy such occasional relaxations more than " his excel- 
lency " the chancellor, usually very grave and g>edate. 



184: REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Peter D. Vroom was governor and chancellor six 
years, and is now the oldest counselor at the bar of 
the supreme court. He was born in the township 
of Hillsborough, County of Somerset, December 12, 
1791, and was the youngest son of Colonel Peter D. 
Vroom, an old and much respected citizen of Somer- 
set. Mr. Stockton used to call him Mr. Frome, in 
accordance with the Dutch pronunciation of his name. 

Colonel Vroom, as I learn from an account of 
him, written by Rev. Dr. Messier, was born in 1745. 
Early in life he lived in New York, whence he came 
to reside on the Raritan, near the junction of the 
north and south branches, living there until his death 
in 1831. He married Elsie Bogert, like himself of 
Dutch descent. He was one of the first to raise a 
military company, at the conniiencement of the Rev- 
olutionary War, in which he served as lieutenant and 
captain, and was appointed major in 1777, and after- 
wards lieutenant-colonel. He led a company at the 
battle of Germantown, and was in service during the 
war. He occupied during his life almost every office 
of trust in the county : sheriff, clerk of the pleas, 
and justice of the peace; and was a member for 
many years either of the Assembly or council. He 
was also an elder in the Dutch Reformed Church, to 
which he belonged, and in all the relations he thus 
sustained was highly esteemed, living until the son 
who bore his name had become governor; hence the 
latter was long designated and known as Peter D. 
Vroom, junior. 

Governor Vroom prepared for college at the Somer- 
ville Academy, and in 1806 entered the junior class 
of Colilmbia College in New York, graduating in 1 808. 



PETER D. VROOM. 185 

He then became a student with George McDonald of 
Soniei ville, and was licensed as an attorney in May, 
1813, two years my senior. He became a counselor 
in 1816, and was called to be a sergeant in 1828. 

He first opened an office as a lawyer at Schooley's 
Mountain, in Morris County, where he remained about 
eighteen months, from whence he went to Hackets- 
town, then in Sussex County, where he remained 
about two years, removing from that place to Flem- 
mington, and enjoying during all this time, notwith- 
standing these repeated removals, quite as good a 
practice as is usually obtained by young lawyers. 
While residing here he married Miss Dumont, a 
daugliter of Colonel Dumont of his native county, 
whose sister was the wife of Frederick Frelinghuysen. 
He was prosecutor of the pleas, by appointment of 
Attorney-general Frelinghuysen. My first knowl- 
edge of him grew out of a compliment paid to him 
by Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, so unusual from that 
quarter as to excite much remark. In the opinion 
pronounced in the case of Kline vs. Ramsay, 1 South. 
141, he took occasion to refer to Mr. Vroom, as the 
counsel for the defendant, " whose discernment and 
accuracy is inferior to none of his standing at the bar." 
In 1820 he returned to his native county, and resided 
in Somerville more than twenty years. Successful as 
he has been and always honored, I have heard him 
speak of his frequent changes as a mistake. 

Up to 1824 he had taken but little part in political 
affairs, having been indeed, as a Federalist, attached to 
the party hopelessly in the minority. In this year 
he espoused with considerable earnestness the support 
of General Jackson, in common with his father and 
many of the leading Federalists of the State, who ob- 



186 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

jected to Adams for having deserted their party and 
joined that of Mr. Jefferson. They were also strongly 
attracted to his support, by the fact, first brought out 
by his democratic opposers to injure his popularity 
with that party, that in 1816 he had addressed a let- 
ter to President Monroe, in which he wrote, " Every- 
thing depends on the selection of your ministry. In 
every selection, party and party feelings should be 
avoided. Now is the time to exterminate that mon- 
ster called party spirit. By selecting characters most 
conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity, and 
firmness, without any regard to party, you will go ftir 
to, if not entirely, eradicate those feelings which on 
former occasions threw so many obstacles in the way 
of government, and perhaps have the pleasure and 
honor of uniting a people heretofore politically di- 
vided. The chief magistrate of a great and powerful 
nation should never indulge in party feelings. His 
conduct should be liberal and disinterested, always 
bearing in mind that he acts for the whole, and not a 
part of the community." 

He represented Somerset County in the house of 
Assembly. in 1826, 1827, and 1829. The majority of 
Jackson men in the legislature of 1829 was very large, 
and it was therefore to be expected that they would 
choose a governor from their own party. General 
Wall, who was first selected, having resisted the im- 
portunities of his friends and persistently refused to 
accept the office, Mr. Vroom was induced very reluct- 
antly to take the place. The governor being at this 
time chancellor and ordinary, the field for selection 
was small. I believe the only other person named 
for the situation on this occasion, was William N. 
Jeflfers, who had very slender claims to such a trust. 



PETER D. VEOOM. 187 

Mr. Vroom was acknowledged, even by those opposed 
to him politically, to be a worthy successor to Isaac 
H. Williamson ; — I cannot say equal to him as a law- 
yer, but fairly entitled to be ranked next to him in 
ability, and unexceptionable in character. He was 
reelected in 1830 and 1831, but the next year the 
friends of Mr. Southard carried the State, and he was 
displaced; but was again elected in 1833, 1834, and 
1835. In 1836 his health having become impaired 
he declined to accept the office again. 

The cases in the court of chancery decided by 
Governor Vroom were the first that were reported. 
They are found in Saxton's Reports and in 2 Green's 
Chancery Reports. The opinions of Chancellor Wil- 
liamson, bat few of which have been printed, first 
gave character to the court, and, especially in ques- 
tions relating to mortgages, have been implicitly fol- 
lowed. Those of Governor Vroom, following in his 
steps, have been still more valuable, because more 
known. Upon the questions decided by him, they 
remain for the most part undisputed precedents. 

Upon retiring from office he resumed his practice 
in Somerville. Early in 1837, President Van Buren 
appointed him one of the three commissioners selected 
to adjust claims to reserves of land, under the treaty 
made with the Choctaw Indians ; this appointment he 
accepted, and was absent in Mississippi several months. 

In 1838 he was elected a member of Congress by a 
fair majority of votes, although, in consequence of ir- 
regularities in some of the returns, he failed to receive 
the governor's commission. This election was the oc- 
casion of a protracted warfare between the two par- 
ties, known as the "broad seal war." That he was 
fairly elected by a clear majority of votes, was clearly 



188 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

shown after a protracted and vexatious examination 
of witnesses, and in the end was not disputed. But 
the great controversy was, whether his vote and the 
votes of his colleagues should be received in the elec- 
tion of a speaker, parties being so nearly divided that 
it depended upon this decision which should prevail 
in organizing the house. It appearing, by undisputed 
documents produced to Congress, that the governor's 
comuiission had been awarded to persons who in point 
of fact did not receive a plurality of the votes cast, it 
was decided, and I think very properly, that those thus 
shown to be elected should be placed on the roll and 
be entitled to vote. The testimony of the " broad 
seal " of the State, was at best only prima facie evi- 
dence ; and being shown to have been affixed upon 
evidence that was imperfect, was rightly set aside, as 
soon as it was proved by authentic returns to be er- 
roneous. The decision of the governor and his coun- 
cil as the law then stood was, I think, right ; but that 
Cono;iess had a rio;ht to look behind his commission 
was equally clear; and that they were entirely justi- 
fiable in doing this, under the circumstances, before 
they allowed the house to be organized, is I think 
equally plain. 

Soon after his service in Congress he removed to 
Trenton, where he has since had his residence. Hav- 
ing lost his first wife, he about this time married a 
daughter of General Wall. In 1844 he was elected 
a deletjate to the constitutional convention from his 
native county, although not a resident there. He was 
chairman of the committee on the legislative depart- 
ment, and took an active part in all the discussions 
and proceedings of the convention. His strong con- 
servative propensities induced him to resist and to aid 



PETER D. VROOM. 189 

in defeating some changes in the constitution, espe- 
cially in regard to the judiciary, which I have always 
thouo-ht would have been beneficial. 

In 1846 he acted with Henry W. Green, Stacy 
G. Potts, and William L. Dayton in a thorough revis- 
ion of the statutes of the State, to adapt these to the 
new constitution, and to consolidate the numerous 
supplements. This work was well performed, and pro- 
duced an excellent body of laws, without disturbing 
the foundations so well laid by Governor Paterson. 
Upon the expiration of the term for which Chief Jus- 
tice Green had been appointed. Governor Fort nom- 
inated Mr. Vroom as his successor, and the appoint- 
ment was forthwith confirmed by the senate. He 
peremptorily declined accepting the office. Indeed it 
was always understood that this result was anticipated, 
and that the governor and some others of the demo- 
cratic party were quite willing to have a fair excuse 
for reappointing the chief justice, who had given great 
satisfaction as the head of the supreme court, and the 
result was, that, after the nomination of Alexander 
Wurtz, who also declined, Green was reinstated. 

Several of the leading federal gentlemen of New 
Jersey who supported General Jackson, fell back into 
the ranks of the opposition when his party became 
identified with the Democrats, while some of the lat- 
ter party who had preferred Mr. Adams, declined to 
act with the Whigs under the lead of Mr. Clay. Mr. 
Vroom has been a steadfast adherent of the demo- 
cratic party. In 1862 he wan a presidential elector 
and cast his vote for Mr. Pierce. 

In 1853 Mr. Vroom was offered the mission to Prus- 
sia, and accepting the appointment he went to Berlin 
in the fall of that year and remained until 1857, when 



190 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

he was recalled at his own request, and resumed his 
profession as an advocate, which he has ever since 
continued, confining his business mainly to arguments 
in the higher courts. His services as minister were 
of no special importance ; but although ignorant of 
the German language, he gave full satisfaction to the 
government he represented, and to that of Prussia. 
The principal subject to which his attention was di- 
rected, and which formed the burden of his correspond- 
ence, was the claim of the subjects of Prussia who had 
emio;rated to America and become citizens of the 
United States, and who were led by business or pleas- 
ure to return to their native country, to be protected 
against the claim of the Prussian government to re- 
quire them to perform the military duty imposed by 
the laws of Prussia. The American government had 
adopted the sound principle of international law, that 
naturalized citizens while resident in America, or else- 
where outside of the country from whence they emi- 
grated, would be protected the same as natural born 
citizens; yet if they chose voluntarily to return to 
their original domicil, they thereby placed themselves 
in the power of the laws they had broken, and could 
not be protected against the consequences of their 
own unlawful acts, committed before they had any 
claim upon the government of the United States, and 
whilst yet Prussian subjects. But it was very difficult 
to make those who thus became subjected to a very 
severe military service, or to serious punishments, 
understand this principle, and in several cases Mr. 
Vroom was subjected to reiterated complaints, and at- 
tempts were made to stir up popular censure at home. 
But he maintained the positions required by his in- 
structions with equal firmness and good temper, ap- 



PETER D. VROOM. 191 

pealing in every proper case, and often with success, 
to the forbearance and clemency of the Prussian gov- 
ernment. 

He was one of the candidates on the electoral ticket 
adopted in 1860 by the friends of Breckinridge and 
Lane; but in the confusion produced by the South- 
ern Democrats, in furtherance of their disunion pur- 
poses, he was defeated, — a result he probably did 
not regret ; because while resolutely opposed to the 
measures of the northern abolitionists, so certain to 
end in producing a civil war, he was equally opposed 
to the secession doctrines of the slaveholders. 

The alarming aspect of affairs produced by the suc- 
cess of Lincoln, by means of the fusion of a large pro- 
portion of the Whigs who had resisted the nomination 
of Fremont, with the Republicans, occasioned a call, 
originating with the legislature of Virginia, for the 
appointment of commissioners by all the States, to 
agree, if practicable, upon some suitable adjustment of 
the unhappy controversies, which threatened to dis- 
solve the Union. Nine gentlemen of the highest char- 
acter were appointed to represent New Jersey, among 
whom was Mr. Vroom. This conference, in which 
twenty States were represented, met at Washington, 
February 4, 1861, and continued in session until the 
23d of that month, after having proposed certain 
amendments of the constitution, by such divided votes 
as gave no promise of restoring peace. Mr. Vroom, 
(and not Randolph, as is erroneously stated by Chit- 
tenden in his report of the proceedings) was a member 
of the committee, composed of one from each State, to 
whom was referred the resolutions of the State of New 
Jersey, and the other States represented, and all prop- 
ositions for the adjustment of existing difficulties be- 



192 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

tween States, with authority to report what they 
might deem right, necessary, and proper to restore 
harmony and preserve the Union. 

I learn by a communication from William C. Alex- 
ander, one of the commissioners, that the committee 
held numerous and protracted sessions, and it was not 
until the 15th of February that Mr. Guthrie, on behalf 
of a majority of the committee, submitted a report. 
" The meetings of this committee were numerous and 
protracted, and the labors of the members arduous and 
exhausting; and Governor Vroom was a punctual, 
faithful, and patient member of the committee. The 
New Jersey delegates were in the habit of assembling 
after each meeting, and receiving from him a full ac- 
count of the proceedings and of the discussions which 
had taken place. These statements were made with 
that clearness and precision so characteristic of Gov- 
ernor Vroom, and I am bound to add that in all our 
conferences and consultations we found him ever, and 
eminently, calm, sagacious, and patriotic. Our inter- 
course with him during the protracted session of the 
conference was exceedingly pleasant. He was uni- 
formly kind, gentle, and acceptable, and his colleagues 
naturally and justly regarded him as the Nestor of the 
delegation, both as regards age and wisdom." . 

I well recollect meeting Governor Olden at Tren- 
ton, while this commission was in session, and asking 
him with much anxiety what he considered the pros- 
pect ; that he answered me by expressing a confident 
expectation that their labors would result in restoring 
peace ; and that I replied, " Governor Olden, I am 
sorry to be obliged to say I have no such hope; your 
party (and by this expression I mean nothing offen- 
sive, for I believe if the Democrats were placed in the 



PETER D. VROOM. 193 

same situation they would act in the same way) are 
too intent to gather the spoils of their victory to care 
for peace." That Governor Olden (who was one of 
our commissioners) had and would faithfully labor to 
procure peace I had no doubt ; as faithfully as he 
labored in fulfillment of his duties as governor of the 
State, to aid in prosecuting the war, when it could no 
long-er be avoided. 

The causes which occasioned the failure of all prop- 
ositions for peace can be perhaps best stated in Gov- 
ernor Vroom's own language, as expressed in an ad- 
dress to the voters of New Jersey, drawn up by him in 
1862: "Radical politicians everywhere opposed the 
adjustment. The union men in the border States 
were earnest in their entreaties. They foresaw and 
foretold with almost prophetic distinctness what would 
be the results of a failure. The Crittenden resolu- 
tions, the propositions of the peace convention, — 
either, if agreed to by Congress, might have saved the 
country. But secessionists in the South opposed them. 
The radicals of the North and East opposed them. 
The great republican party, ever3avhere, with some 
honorable exceptions, were unwilling to abandon their 
platform. They insisted it should be carried out to 
the letter, no matter what might be the consequences. 
Some assured the people that there was no danger ; 
that everything would be quieted in thirty days, or a 
few weeks ; others did not hesitate to say that blood- 
letting would be of service to the nation." 

This address of 1862 discloses fully the grounds 
upon which Mr. Vroom, and those agreeing with him, 
thought it their duty to oppose the measures of the 
Lincoln administration. He emphatically disclaimed 
any concurrence in the doctrine of secession, declaring. 

13 



194 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

it to be a political heresy which finds no place in the 
constitution and subversive of the principles of our 
government. But he insisted that the only legitimate 
object of the war was, as Congress had resolved, to 
suppress rebellion, establish the authority of the con- 
stitution, and restore the Union ; and that this being 
accomplished it should cease. It was fast assuming 
the character of a war for the abolition of slavery. 
And what was far more important even than this, the 
constitution was disresrarded and treated as if no Ion- 
ger binding. The President had gone further than 
any sovereign of Great Britain had ventured to go, 
since the Revolution of 1688, in claiming the power 
to nullify the laws, and by his own authority to sus- 
pend the privilege of the great writ of habeas corpus. 
This writ had never before been suspended even by 
the Congress ; but now, under the sanction of the 
highest law officer of the government, it had been sus- 
pended by a mere executive fiat. 

Looking back now, after the fierce excitements of 
the season of peril through which we passed during 
four years of a terrible civil war have nearly or quite 
subsided, we cannot fail to see the extent to which 
the minds of men on both sides of the conflict were 
thrown off their right balance. The right of a State 
to secede from the Union, was firmly believed in by 
very intelligent and worthy citizens of the Southern 
States ; while at the North, the seeming necessity of 
the case, induced able lawyers and citizens to regard 
the Constitution of the Union as virtually superseded. 
Martial law was formally proclaimed even in New 
Jersey, and officers called provost-marshals invested 
with the arbitrary power of arresting and imprisoning 
peaceable citizens who were bold enough openly to 



PETER D. VEOOM. 195 

express their honest opinions. That stern necessity 
may have justified the arrest of those members of the 
legislature of Maryland, who were prepared to take 
measures for hastily declaring that State and the Dis- 
trict of Columbia out of the Union, and thereby en- 
abling the adherents of the Southern Confederacy to 
seize the public offices at Washington, and deprive the 
President of the power to fidfill his duties, has always 
been conceded by many of the prominent Democrats 
of New Jersey, and has never been doubted by me. 
But arbitrarily to suspend the most important func- 
tions of the judiciary in all the States, and to claim 
the right to do this as a necessary war power of the 
commander-in-chief of the military forces, w\as a 
stretch of power not to be excused. Happily the 
popular disapprobation of these tyrannical measures 
was so plainly expressed hy the result of the elections 
in many of the States in 1862, that they were not 
long persisted in, and President Lincoln in one of his 
published letters expressed his willingness to follow 
the indications of the public sentiment. The supreme 
court has also held the seizure and trial of citizens not 
connected with nor within the lines of the army by a 
military commission to be in conflict with the consti- 
tution, and altogether illegal and void. Nothing in- 
deed seems to be more important to the safe action of 
our republican government, than the continued exist- 
ence of an opposition party, under the lead of men 
firm enough to resist the first beginning of oppression, 
and wise enough to confine that opposition to peace- 
able and reasonable measures. 

The measures adopted for raising an army by means 
of a compulsory draft, were believed by many of our 
best and most intelligent citizens to be in conflict 



196 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

with the constitution. Similar measures, when pro- 
posed by the democratic administration for carrying 
on the war against Great Britain in 1814, had been 
declared unconstitutional by a very large majority of 
the legislature of Connecticut, and were so fiercely 
assailed by the whole federal party of that day as to 
be abandoned. So strong an opposition to the en- 
forcement of the draft was manifested in Somerset 
County, that there seemed to be great danger of forci- 
ble resistance. Under these circumstances Mr. Vroom 
was induced to address a large assembly of the people 
of that county in July, 1863. His speech on that oc- 
casion has been always regarded by those who heard 
it, as distinguished for eloquence and force ; and his 
success in calming the passions of an excited people, 
and in inducing them to submit quietly to the en- 
forcement of a most obnoxious law, until it should be 
declared unconstitutional by the proper judicial tribu- 
nal, proved his power as a public speaker, and the re- 
gard still entertained for him by those from whom he 
had been so long separated. 

This speech was but imperfectly reported, but it 
attracted very deserved attention, and its influence 
was not confined to the county in which it was deliv- 
ered. After referring to the right of free discussion, 
and to the war as a calamity he believed might have 
been prevented, and to what he deemed the improper 
mode in which it was conducted, he asked " What 
then are we to do, in the situation in which we find 
ourselves placed ? Let us resolve that this country, in 
its whole length and breadth, is our country, and that 
we will serve it if we can. At a time like this every 
man's heart must go forth, earnestly and devoutly, for 
the adoption and success of such measures as will tend 



PETER D. VROOM. 197 

to restore our Union, and give us the blessings of the 
free government left us by our fathers. In this we 
are all interested. We have all a stake in the hedge 
which it is our duty to guard against any infraction. 
We must abide by the constitution ; it provides for 
declaring war and supporting armies, and for calling 
out the militia, and no powers not given by it can be 
rightfully exercised by rulers or people. The doc- 
trine of necessity, the favorite doctrine of the hour, 
has no place in it, and is not to be tolerated. 

" We must abide by the laws, when duly made ; 
this has always been a principle of the democratic 
creed, and I address myself to a law-loving people. 
We are not called upon to play the hypocrite and 
sing the praises of impolitic or bad laws, but we are to 
abide by them while they are laws. We may believe 
them to be unjust and unconstitutional; but in regard 
to their constitutionality we are not the judges. We 
are the people upon whom they are to operate, and 
who are to obey them. A judiciary has been pro- 
vided to determine their constitutionality ; and that 
is our protection — it is the constitutional shield 
thrown around our rights." 

Mr. Vroom labored earnestly in support of General 
McClellan for the presidency at the election of 1864, 
and contributed greatly to his success in New Jersey. 
McClellan perhaps more nearly represented the great 
majority of the Democrats in this State, than any 
other person then proposed as a candidate for their 
suffrages. He had been an earnest and faithful oppo- 
nent of secession, and, as the commander of the army, 
had carried on the war in the true spirit of a patriotic 
general ; and there was a deep feeling that his great 
services had been rewarded only by cruel disparage- 
ment and base desertion. Could his party have pre- 



198 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

vailed in the United States, there is every reason to 
believe that not only would a safe and honorable 
peace have been obtained, but that the integrity of 
our constitution would have been maintained and the 
government administered in its true spirit. 

Opinions may differ in regard to the military capac- 
ity of General McClellan ; but it is certain, that while 
he had the nominal command of the army of the Po- 
tomac he had no fair opportunity of disclosing his true 
character as a general. As has been so forcibly and 
truly stated by Lord Macaulay, no general ever suc- 
ceeded who was subject to the control of a military 
council. And he was subject to a control far worse 
than any military council ever could be. Newspapers 
exercising a powerful influence, not only over the 
public mind, but over the mind of the President and 
his advisers, were shouting, " On to Richmond," re- 
gardless of preparation or of adequate force ; other 
generals, jealous of his promotion, were busy in urging 
complaints ; and those having authority to direct his 
measures, themselves without a plan, were constantly 
interferino; with his measures and renderinci: success 
impossible. But the best test of his true character 
was his conduct when he was unjustly displaced and 
the command devolved on others, inferior to him in 
all respects. When they ignominiously failed, and all 
was terror and alarm, he unhesitatingly resumed the 
command, made the best of the difficulties thrown in 
his way, and led the army to a hard won victory. He 
then quietly retired, and bore, with true Christian 
magnanimity, contumely and abuse. Never, by one 
word or action, did he depart from the line of conduct 
with which he commenced his career. 

Had a majority of the people elected and supported 



PETER D. VROOM. • 199 

McClellan, v;e might have been saved the great crime 
and the great calamity of having a president assassi- 
nated, and the piibhc mind, ah'eady sufficiently in- 
flamed, thrown into a paroxysm of passion natural 
enough, but disastrous in its influence. We should 
have been spared a president capable of commencing 
his duties by disgracing himself in the eyes of the 
world, elected by men who had but one sentiment in 
common with him, and who were ready, not only to 
dissent from his most important recommendations, 
but to brand him as a criuiinal and to attempt to de- 
grade him from his office, because he differed from 
them in regard to measures at best of very doubtful 
propriety, and interpreted obscure statutes in a way 
they did not approve. 

The war between the North and the South, lament- 
able as it was, resulted in the complete overthrow of 
slavery, and thus, in the providence of God, a great 
good came out of a great evil. But no such compen- 
sation can be hoped for, from measures of reconstruc- 
tion which have not only materially altered, and in 
some aspects, it is to be feared, for the worse, our old 
constitution ; but which have been adopted in contra- 
vention of plain provisions that remain. When it was 
first proposed to treat the Southern States as con- 
quered provinces, the proposition found little favor, 
even with leading Republicans. But such extreme 
and dangerous men as Thaddeus Stevens and Benjor 
min F. Butler were suffered to rule. The result has 
been a series of measures which have produced state 
governments that are a reproach to our country, and 
which threaten permanently to alienate the best citi- 
zens from the trovernment of the Union. Mr. Vroom 
has been constant in his opposition to all these meas- 



200 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ures. In 1868 he was chosen one of the presidential 
electors, and aided in casting the vote of the State for 
Horatio Seymour. 

Upon the death of his eldest son, who was the state 
reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, he was 
induced to accept that office, and still holds it, having 
published four volumes of Reports. He has also, dur- 
ing several years, held the appointment of one of the 
commissioners of the sinking fund. 

Enjoying the instruction of faithful Christian par- 
ents, he early in life united himself with the Dutch 
Reformed Church, and was during many years a rul- 
ing- elder. Not only of full Dutch descent, but a 
partaker of that conservative character generally at- 
tributed to those of that race, he was a zealous and 
earnest advocate for the retention of the word 
" Dutch " in the name of his church. 

An able and eloquent speaker on the platform, he 
has frequently been called on to make addresses to 
the graduates of Rutger's College, of which he is a 
trustee, and to the American Colonization and Bible 
Societies, of which he is a vice-president. In 1850 
the College of New Jersey conferred on him the de- 
gree of LL, D. 

Mr. Yroom stands at the head of the bar of New 
Jersey, and now, at the great age of nearly fourscore, 
continues to practice his profession. An argument 
which he recently made before the court of errors and 
appeals, on the constitutional question as to the power 
of the legislature to allow an appeal from a decree of 
the prerogative court, has been spoken of as equal 
to one of his best efforts in the days of his youthful 



CHAPTER VII. 

GOVERNORS I HAVE IvKOWN. 
SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. ELIAS P. SEELEY. 

O AMUEL L. SOUTHARD, governor and chancel- 
lor in 1832, was born at Baskingridge, June 9, 
1787. His father, Henry Southard, was from Long 
Island, and removed to New Jersey early in life. He 
had only a common English education, and started 
in life as a day laborer; but by untiring industry 
and saving, managed to purchase a farm, and was 
for many years a justice of the peace, and several 
years a member of the Assembly of New Jersey. 
At the election for members of Congress, in the fall 
of 1800, he was elected by the republican party, a 
representative from New Jersey, and was successively 
reelected until 1810. In 1814 he was again elected, 
and continued to be reelected until 1820, closing his 
congressional career on the 3d of March, 1821. His 
son took his seat in the senate, in February, and they 
were both members of the joint committee of the two 
houses, which reported what was then called the Mis- 
souri Compromise. He died June 2, 1842, a few days 
before the death of his son. 

It was said that when Samuel was about eleven 
years of age, his mother struck him for some impro- 
priety of conduct; becoming enraged, he left his 
home with the intention of not returning. He had 
not proceeded far before he began to reflect upon the 
rashness and wickedness of his conduct, and seating 



202 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

himself by the way-side, he wept long and bitterly, 
and rose up to return home, beg his mother's forgive- 
ness, and promise her that his temper should never 
again become his master. This interesting incident, 
which seems to have been derived from his own state- 
ment, I can readily accept as authentic, because it 
agrees so well with my own observation of his dispo- 
sition. He undoubtedly possessed a warm and sus- 
ceptible temperament ; and although he too often 
yielded to temptation, he was capable of great self- 
control, and sometimes was called upon to exercise 
it, not only amid scenes of political warfare, but on 
occasions of far more trying inflictions of private 
wrong and injury 

When about twelve years of age, he commenced 
the study of Latin, at a classical academy taught at 
Baskingridge by the Rev. Robert Finley, afterwards 
well known as the principal founder of the American 
Colonization Society. Here he enjoyed the tuition 
of an accomplished scholar, a thorough disciplinarian, 
a skillful teacher, and one particularly distinguished 
for his ability to awaken the interest of his pupils in 
what they were studying. He had a natural fond- 
ness for teaching, and gave his whole mind to the 
work. His influence with the scholars was increased 
by his sacred profession, and the uncommon power 
and unction which marked his efforts in the pulpit. 
And here, of more importance to him, perhaps, than 
the studies of the school, he enjoyed the fellowship 
of Theodore Frelinghuysen, not then, as he after- 
wards became, a devoted Christian, but a moral and 
amiable youth, beloved by his classmates, and ex- 
ercising a salutary influence over his associates. 
The friendship here commenced, remained unbroken 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 203 

through Mr. Southard's life. Joseph R. Ingersoll, 
of Philadelphia, George Chambers, of Pennsylvania, 
Phillip Lindsley (afterwards vice-president of Prince- 
ton and president of Nashville University), and Rev. 
Dr. Jacob Kirkpatrick, were also students with South- 
ard at this school. 

In September, 1802, he entered the junior class at 
Princeton, and in 1804, at the age of seventeen years 
and three months, took his degree with honor at 
that institution, in the same class with Frelinghuy- 
sen, Ingersoll, Kirkpatrick, and Lindsley, his fellow- 
students in the academy. Samuel Stanhope Smith, 
so distinguished for his polished manners, for his ac- 
quaintance with ancient and modern literature, and 
for eloquence as a preacher, was then the president 
of the college, and in full possession of his fixculties. 
Rev. Dr. James Alexander, referring to him in his 
centennial address, in 1847, says: "A little later, we 
who first saw these shades in 1812, recall the vener- 
able form of the president, as he laid aside the sym- 
bol of learned rule ; beautiful and lordly in his decay ; 
unsurpassed in our memory, for perfect gracefulness 
and a stateliness which had lost all that was once con- 
sidered as pomp." And Southard himself, in an ad- 
dress before the alumni of the college, in 1832, says of 
him : " Of but one of them can I speak from observa- 
tion and intercourse ; and of him the impression re- 
mains too vivid with many of you to need that I 
should arouse it. Who that ever saw the dignified 
and gentle, graceful and manly person and manners of 
Smith, and has not the object still unejfifaced upon his 
sense of vision ? Who that has heard his polished 
and fervid eloquence, can have lost the impression 
upon his ear ? Who that felt the influence of his be- 



204 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

nevolence and piety, and does not still feel its action 
upon the heart ? Who that listened to the instructions 
of his learning, and the precepts of his wisdom, does 
not find his jDantings after higher attainments in vir- 
tue and knowledge enlivened by the recollections ? " 

Soon after he left the college, Mr. Southard went 
to Mendham, Morris County, and taught a classical 
school. Proposing then to travel through the South, 
he went to Washington, where his father was a mem- 
ber of the house of representatives. He had there be- 
come intimate with Colonel John Taliaferro (pro- 
nounced Tolliver), for many years a member of Con- 
gress from Virginia, who applied to him to recommend 
a tutor to take charge of his sons and nej)hews. For 
many years before this time, and for years afterward, 
it was a connuon thing for wealthy Virginians to seek 
tutors educated at Princeton. As soon as young Mr. 
Southard arrived, the proposition was made to him 
to accept the situation, which he agreed to do, and to 
relinquish his plan of travel. 

Accordingly, in the fall of 1805, he commenced his 
residence at Hagley, the plantation of Colonel Tal- 
iaferro, in King George's County, a few miles from 
Fredericksburg, and remained an inmate of his family 
five years. He had generally eight pupils, two of them 
sons of the colonel, and the others were his nephews, 
or other relatives, and was accustomed to devote five 
days of the week to the duties of the situation as 
tutor. Soon he added to his other employments the 
study of the law, under the direction and with the 
aid of Judges Green and Brooks, of Fredericksburg. 
After the examination usual there, before judges in 
private, he was admitted to practice law in 1809. 

It is not easy now fully to appreciate the advan- 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 205 

tages enjoyed by an acceptable tutor in tbe family 
of a rich and cultivated planter of Virginia sixty 
years ago. One of his pupils, Major Lawrence Talia- 
ferro, who recently died at his residence in Bedford, 
Pennsylvania, after having been for many years on 
the retired list of the United States Army, writes to 
me : " Southard was treated as a friend and a brother ; 
we loved him." Another pupil, James Monroe Tal- 
iaferro now of Stafford County, Virginia, writes : " It 
is impossible for me to do justice to one of the best 
men I ever met. Pure, gentle, affectionate, and 
talented, he needed no association to aid him, for his 
own virtues shone above the generality of men with 
exceeding brilliancy, and won for him a name and 
respect that is still green and flourishing in the 
memory of all who had the pleasure of his acquaint- 
ance. He was our guide, example, and teacher, and 
I shall never forget him ; and who could, with a 
heart to appreciate such noble traits as he possessed ?" 
Treated as the associate and friend of the family, 
and introduced to the society of the cultivated men 
and women with whom they had almost daily inter- 
course ; furnished with a horse, at all times at his dis- 
posal, and thus enabled to reciprocate the visits of 
neighboring families, a youth prepared for it as Mr. 
Southard had been, was afforded means of improve- 
ment in knowledge and manners, which could hardly 
be prized too highly. 

The state of society among the better class of the 
planters of Virginia, now entirely changed, whether 
it shall prove to be for the better or the worse, was 
at that time very peculiar. Writing from Charlotte 
County in May, 1826, the Rev. Dr. J. W. Alexander 
describes that region as "a rich, fertile region, pro- 



206 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ducing great quantities of prime tobacco, and of 
course growing wealthy. The manners of the peo- 
ple are plain, frank, hospitable, and independent, 
proud of their Virginianism and all its peculiarities. I 
suppose that no set of people in the world live more 
at their ease, or indeed more luxuriously, so far as 
eating and drinking are concerned. No farmer would 
think of sittino; down to dinner with less than four 
dishes of meat, or to breakflxst without several differ- 
ent kinds of warm bread. It is, moreover, a moral 
country ; no gambling, no dissipation, or frolicking." 
Colonel Taliaferro was a relation of James Monroe, 
and enjoyed not only his acquaintance and fellowship, 
but was intimate also with Jefferson and Madison, 
and most of the other distinguished men of his time. 
His family circle, like that in which it was the good 
fortune of William Wirt to be admitted in the same 
vicinity, and which aided so much in forming his ad- 
mirable character, as is stated by his biographer, fur- 
nished attractions both to old and young. His chil- 
dren and their associates drew around them many 
cheerful and happy companions. An elegant hospi- 
tality prevailed in his household, choice books were 
found in his library, or in the libraries of his imme- 
diate friends instructive and agreeable conversation 
enlivened his fireside. Hagley exhibited just such a 
combination of rare and pleasant appurtenances as 
are likely to make the best impressions upon the mind 
of an ingenuous and ambitious youth, and to inspire 
him with zeal in the cultivation of virtue and knowl- 
edge. Mr. Southard attracted the attention and won 
the affectionate regards of Mr. Monroe, and was ac- 
customed frequently to visit him, and sometimes to 
spend several days with him at his residence in Loudon 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 207 

County, some sixty miles or more from King George's. 
Among the inmates of his home at Hagley, was a 
ward of his patron, Miss Kebecca Harrow, daughter 
of a deceased minister of the Episcopal Church, orig- 
inally from Ireland, whom he afterwards married ; al- 
though it appears from some of his letters that he 
had long indulged a passion for a lady at Mendhara. 

A change in the society of Eastern Virginia began 
to manifest itself very plainly, several years before 
the recent rebellion. Much of the land was badly 
cultivated, and wealth diminished rather than in- 
creased. The rebellion hastened the decay. Hag- 
ley, I have been mformed, is now a ruin. One of 
Mr. Southard's pupils writing to me, remarks : " We 
are a poor set hereabouts. Honors are sometimes 
dangerous; my services m the senate of Virginia 
for many years, has placed my neck under the con- 
gressional guillotine, and the war has left me a beg- 
gar on the earth, with a very large family." 

Mr. Southard was licensed as an attorney by the 
supreme court of this State in 1811, and then took 
up his residence in Flemington, the county seat of 
Hunterdon County, where he built himself a house. 
He was married to Miss Harrow at Hagley, in June, 
1812. He soon acquired a good practice, and was 
appointed prosecuting attorney of the county. 

He first attracted attention, and took the place he 
was entitled by his talents and acquirements to fill, 
in an argument before the legislature of New Jersey, 
in January, 1815, in opposition to a petition pre- 
sented by Livingston and Fulton to repeal a law of 
this State passed in 1813, granting to Aaron Ogden 
and Daniel Dod the exclusive privilege of using 
steamboats plying between New Jersey and New 



208 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

York in the waters of New Jersey. This law was 
designed, and expressed on its face, the purpose of 
opposing the monopoly of running steamboats in the 
waters of New York, granted by that State to the 
first person who should succeed in constructing a 
boat to be propelled by steam, capable of passing 
through the water at the rate of six miles an hour, 
and which right was thus acquired by the success of 
Fulton's boat, constructed by him with the aid of Mr. 
Livingston. The celebrated Thomas Addis Emmet 
appeared as the advocate of Livingston and Ful- 
ton, Joseph Hopkinson being associated with Mr. 
Southard. 

Fortunately we have a contemporary statement of 
the arguments in this case, in a " Letter to a Gentle- 
man in Washington," understood to have been writ- 
ten by Lucius H. Stockton, Esq., to his brother Rich- 
ard, then a member of Congress. Mr. Emmet made 
the opening address. Mr. Southard's answer is thus 
described : — 

" His whole speech, which appeared to me to be delivered almost 
extempore, or with very short notes, to which he made no per- 
ceivable application, was clear, neat, ornate, fluent, and sententious, 
manifesting a capacity of intellect really gigantic. It was distin- 
guished by a lucid order and arrangement, united with great precision 
and simplicity of eloquence, which, however, was very forcible, and 
rising to a high degree of excitement in certain parts, but particu- 
larly in the conclusion of his argument. 

" Possessing that classical and ingenuous modesty usually accom- 
panying the superiority of true literary merit, he has the seductive 
manner of an Attic elegance, easier to conceive than describe, which, 
irresistibly captivating the affections, insinuates itself into the mi- 
nutest ligaments of the heart. It is, therefore, easy to observe an 
inexpressible elegance, grace, dignity, and force, exciting a peculiar 
interest in everything which he utters, and justly entitling him to 
the character of what is well expressed in the language of our 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 209 

aboriginal inhabitants by ' a beloved young man.' Though I have 
been accustomed for many years to hear the most eminent men of 
our country, celebrated for the eloquence of the senate, forum, and 
pulpit, yet I can say with sincerity that, in my judgment, he was 
never exceeded by a man of any age, and rarely if ever equaled by 
a man of twenty-seven years old. His voice is clear, musical, and 
though not very strong, so distinct that you never fail to hear 
every word. On this occasion he so completely united the suaviter 
in modo with the fortiter in re, that he obtained the rare facility 
seldom enjoyed by us who tread the toilsome and thorny paths of 
forensic litigation, of perfectly satisfying his clients and gratifying 
his friends, without incurring the ire usually excited in adversaries. 
I am confident that in this great cause, — in which not to have been 
disgraced by a necessary comparison with Hopkinson, Emmet, and 
Ogden is an honor of.no inferior grade, — he delivered a speech 
neither defective nor redundant, which created an indelible impression 
on his hearers, not to be erased while the love of brilliant genius, 
real eloquence, profound erudition, and manly patritoism remain to 
adorn and vivify the minds of Jerseymen. Although I very much 
regret the delusion under which I view him as laboring on the subject 
of politics, which, considering his pure, amiable, and irreproachable 
character, I must attribute to the early prejudices acquired under 
his parental roof, and his subsequent residence in a democratic part 
of Virginia, yet I sincerely wish he may be long continued as a 
blessing and ornament to his friends, family, and country." 

The state Law so obnoxious to Livingston and Ful- 
ton was repealed by the legislature, notwithstanding 
the strenuous efforts of Colonel Ogden, his counsel, 
and friends ; and the result of the whole contest was 
very disastrous to that gentleman. But Mr. Southard 
was not only fortunate in being brought before the 
public in such an important and well-known contro- 
versy, in connection with such celebrated speakers, and 
in being able to maintain a respectable position among 
them, but also in having such a friendly reporter, 
whose account, although partaking of the somewhat 
exaggerated style of the eccentric writer, was exceed- 
ingly interesting, and was well received and generally 

14 



// 



210 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

read at the time of its publication. His subsequent 
performances as an advocate and senator did not, as 
has sometimes happened in similar cases, prove that 
the praise so freely lavished was undeserved, but 
served rather to show that it was in the main de- 
served. 

At the succeeding election in Hunterdon County, 
Mr. Southard was elected a member of the Assembly, 
and Mahlon Dickerson, then one of the justices of 
the supreme court, being elected governor, South- 
ard was immediately chosen by the joint meeting to 
succeed him in the court. The vote was twenty-nine 
for Southard, and twenty-four for Joseph Mcllvaine, 
determined by the location of the members or by 
personal preferences, both of them belonging to the 
democratic party. 

Mr. Southard sat as a judge five years, and was 
also the reporter of the decisions of the supreme 
court. Although his true place was not as a judge, 
he maintained a respectable standing, and had the 
confidence of the bar. His opinions, as reported, 
were well considered and happily expressed. One 
of them, pronounced soon after he took his seat on 
the bench (1 South, 339), is a good example of his 
style of writing. 

Shortly after his aj)pointment as justice of the 
supreme court, Mr. Southard removed his residence 
to Trenton ; and it would seem that he was willing 
to have relinquished his place as judge and returned 
to his profession, having, in November, 1817, re- 
ceived twenty-six votes for the appointment of attor- 
ney-general against the twenty-seven which at that 
time elected Mr. Frelinghuysen. In 1820 a new revis- 
ion of 'the Statutes of the State having been made. 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 211 

he and Charles Ewing prepared it for publication, 
and superintended the printing. In the fall of that 
year he was elected one of the presidential electors, 
and had the pleasure of recording his vote for his 
friend Mr. Monroe, who was reelected president, re- 
ceiving every vote but one, a unanimity which has 
not happened in any other case. 

I became personally acquainted with him when I 
was licensed as a counselor in 1818. In the fall of 
1820 I was elected a member of Assembly from the 
County of Cumberland, on a union ticket formed in 
opposition to the regular democratic ticket, as an 
expression of adherence to the policy of President 
Monroe, which to a great extent ignored the old 
party disputes. So entirely had this spirit the as- 
cendency in the legislature of that year, that the 
principle was adopted and regularly acted upon, of 
allowing the representatives of each county to take 
the responsibility of making the county appointments 
without regard to party, the other members never 
interfering unless they disagreed. This policy was 
interrupted the next year ; but the two succeeding 
years it was reinstated. Party politics had but little 
influence in the State until the success of Jackson in 
1828. 

The term of James J. Wilson, one of the senators 
from New Jersey, expired on the 3d of March, 1821, 
so that it became necessary to reelect him or choose 
a successor, during the sitting of the legislature. 
Mr. Wilson was the editor and proprietor of the " Tren- 
ton True American," the organ of the democratic 
party, and had for nearly twenty years, in connec- 
tion with Judge Rossell and a few others, controlled 
its management in the State. Unfortunately he had 



212 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

within a few years become intemperate in his habits, 
a fact which was denied by his adherents, and which 
many of his friends were slow to believe, but which 
had become known to me and some others. Under 
these circumstances a number of those who had al- 
ways been Democrats, including Pennington of Essex 
(a brother of the judge), determined, if it should be 
found practicable, to elect some other person. Upon 
canvassing the members of the two houses, it was 
found that a majority were of this opinion. When a 
regular preliminary meeting of those opposed to 
Wilson was held, John Rutherfurd, then residing near 
Newark, and Samuel L. Southard, were brought for- 
ward as the candidates. Having a decided preference 
myself for Mr. Southard, and believing it objection- 
able to select an eastern man (the other senator 
being Mahlon Dickerson, of Morris County), I in- 
sisted that West Jersey must have the preference, and 
this consideration induced a majority of those present 
to vote for Southard. When the joint meeting was 
held in November, he was elected by a vote of thirty 
in his favor, against twenty-four for Wilson. 

In a few days after his election as senator, Mr. 
Southard resigned his office as justice of the su- 
preme court, and Ford was chosen his successor. Mr. 
Wilson did not attend in the senate at its next meet- 
ing, and soon resigned. Southard was appointed 
to fill the vacancy, and took his seat February 16, 
1821. Cono;ress was then in the midst of the excite- 
ment growing out of the question of admitting Mis- 
souri as a State of the Union, which was resisted on 
account of two clauses in its . constitution, one of 
which (sec. 26 of article 3d) directed that the legis- 
lature should prohibit the immigration of free negroes 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 213 

into the State, and the other forbade the abolition of 
slavery. The house of representatives had, by a 
considerable majority, voted against admitting the 
State. On the 2 2d day of February, Mr. Clay moved 
in that house a resolution, "That a committee be 
appointed on the part of this house, jointly with such 
committee as may be appointed on the part of the 
senate, to consider and report to the senate and to 
the house whether it is expedient or not to make 
provision for the admission of Missouri into the 
Union, on the same footing as the original States, 
and for the due execution of the laws of the United 
States within Missouri; and if not, whether any 
other and what provision adapted to her actual con- 
dition ought to be made by law." 

To this resolution Mr. James A. Hamilton must 
refer, in a statement which he makes in his recently 
published "Reminiscences" (page 443), given on the 
authority of Ogden Hoffman, son-in-law to S. to 
whom Southard related the facts. It is as follows : — 

" Mr. Southard was a member of the senate of the United States, 
young and recent ; Mr. Clay an old, distinguished, and influential 
member of the house of representatives, pending the agitation of 
that question which excited the deepest interest and anxiety in all 
parts of the country. Mr. Southard prepared resolutions, the iden- 
tical ones afterward introduced and passed. He showed them to his 
political friends, Mr. Clay among others. They were approved, 
and it was agreed that Mr. Southard should, on a certain day, as soon 
as the morning business was over, present them to the senate. On 
the morning of that day, Southard being prepared to move those 
resolutions, received a message from Mr. Clay, requesting a meet- 
ing on the resolutions. Southard went there. Clay urged that it 
would be better that the resolutions should be brought forward in 
the house of representatives, and desired Mr. Southard to give 
him the resolutions, saying he would, with Mr. Southard's consent, 
bring something of the same kind forward in the house. Mr. 
Southard assented. Mr. Clay took the resolutions, and without 



214 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

change iii any respect whatever, offered the resolutions in the house. 
They were carried in both houses. The question was settled ; the 
agitation ceased. Mr. Clay has had from that time the whole merit 
of that measure. He never has given to Mr. Southard the credit 
of any part." 

Mr. Southard was one of the committee of the 
senate, and Mr. Clay was at the head of the house 
committee. On the 26th of February, the latter re- 
ported the following resolutions, which, being adopted 
by a majority of both houses, and assented to by the 
legislature of Missouri, ended the struggle. It would 
seem from the tenor of Mr. Hamilton's statement, 
that this was also drafted by Mr. Southard. 

" Resolved, That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on 
an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, 
upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the twenty- 
sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on 
the part of said State to Congress, shall never be construed to au- 
thorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in 
conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in 
this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the 
privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the 
Constitution of the United States ; provided that the legislature 
of the said State by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of 
the said State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit 
to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Mon- 
day in November next, an authentic copy of the said act ; upon the 
receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the 
fact ; whereupon and without any further proceedings on the part of 
Congress, the admission of the said State into this Union shall be 
considered as complete." 

At the session of Congress commencing in Decem- 
ber, 1821, Mr. Southard spoke on several occasions, 
but made no special effort to attract attention. In 
a letter to me, written during the winter session of 
1822-23, he refers to various subjects, and among 
others, to a speech he had made on a bill before the 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 215 

senate respecting imprisonment for debt. He re- 
marks : " The editor of the ' National Intelligencer ' 
told me he intended to publish my remarks. I have 
no ambition, however, to see myself in print, and 
should be quite willing he would let me alone." 

In this letter he refers to the question of the next 
president, and says : " My objections to Adams, Clay, 
and Crawford, are the same which you mention, and 
I have others which you have not mentioned ; but I 
do not coincide in the belief that Mr. Calhoun is out 
of the question ; he seems to me quite as likely to 
succeed as any one of the others." His preference 
for Mr. Calhoun continued to be expressed, until 
near the election of Mr. Adams. It must be remem- 
bered that this was while Mr. Calhoun was Secretary 
of War, a decided supporter of measures of internal 
improvement, and before, as Mr. Webster in his great 
speech in answer to Hayne expressed it, " that star 
in its ascension veered off in an unexpected direc- 
tion." He had not then advanced those ultra state 
right doctrines which afterwards did so much mis- 
chief, but was the favorite of " Young America," as 
well in the North as South. 

In a letter addressed to me, from Washington, by 
Richard S. Coxe, Esq., who had recently removed 
from New Jersey, and who was for some years a lead- 
ing lawyer there, dated March 2, 1823, he remarks : 
" You have been more acquainted with Southard than 
I ever was, until I came here ; but I have found him 
one of the very finest fellows I ever knew. Liberal 
in his principles and feelings, high-minded and hon- 
orable, and in his conduct towards myself as earnest 
and kind as if I had been his brother. In one re- 
spect, I have found him very different from what I 



216 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

had been led to believe of him. He is as thoroug-h 
a Jersey man as any you have ever met with. I have 
had the pleasure of spending many pleasant hours 
with him and Holcombe this winter. They are both 
great favorites here ; but I am inclined to think that 
Southard has more weig-ht here than all the residue 

o 

of the Jersey delegation." 

A subsequent letter, dated March 31, 1823, re- 
marks : " I understand to-day that Mr. Thompson 
(Smith Thompson, Secretary of the Navy) has not 
positively determined whether or not to accept the 
proffered appointment of a seat on the bench. It 
will probably be determined before many days. 
Should he accept, his present situation will unques- 
tionably be offered to our friend Southard. I trust 
he will make no difficulty about it, but come among 
us, and live where he is much beloved and resj^ected. 
I am in hopes Jersey is to hold up her head again, 
for I am sure she has within her men of as much 
talent as any State in the Union, in proportion to her 
numbers, and until I came here I had no idea how 
dear all her interests are to me." 

While this letter is before me, it may interest oth- 
ers, as it certainly does me, if I quote from it, the 
writer's remarks upon those he had heard of the 
then bar of the supreme court. He was a well edu- 
cated lawyer, of good literary taste and culture, and 
writes the first impressions, and perhaps somewhat 
hasty, but in the main just conclusions of a young 
man. Webster had not then become so well known 
as a great lawyer and orator as he afterwards was, 
and in ordinary cases never appeared to great advan- 
tage. 

" The bar, though able, is different from what I had anticipated. 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 



217 



I candidly think that causes are, upon the average, argued with as 
much ability and learning at the bar of our supreme court at 
Trenton as at Wasliington. Take him altogether, I consider Ser- 
geant as the first man here ; he unites sound learning, great indus- 
try, and an agreeable elocution, in a higher degree than any others. 
Emmet is perhaps his equal, but he possesses more of the vivacity 
of manner and declamation ; the feeling he shows seems to flow 
from his interest for his clients ; Sergeant's from his desire to ob- 
tain a just decision. You can better understand the whole of this 
distinction than any language can explain it. Webster is able, m- 
genious, ^.nd learned, very acute, and possessed of a logical mind ; 
but he seems to make the argument of a cause a mere matter of 
heartless business ; he is dry as tinder, awkward in his manner, by 
no means prepossessing in his appearance, and I think would argue 
with as much feeling if he was discussing the right of property in 
a rusty nail, as if the salvation of the universe hung upon the 
cause. Harper is too verbose to be either very agreeable or very 
powerful. Wirt is more argumentative than declamatory ; but he 
seems incapable of any great continuity of argument ; he argues to 
gain his point rather than his cause. Clay seems to think that 
Mr. C. must make a handsome speech, while he probably never had 
a ghmpse of what beauty consisted in, for he has no delicacy of 
taste in anything. Jones has every natural talent in such perfec- 
tion that he never will be half as great as if he had a smaller por- 
tion of it." 

Probably the comment on Mr. Clay will strike 
readers at the present day as most wanting in just 
appreciation of his talents ; but it must be remem- 
bered that he was then a leading Democrat ; Mr. Coxe 
had always been a Federalist. He did not rank Mr. 
Clay any lower as a lawyer than I have heard him 
placed by Judge Washington and Richard Stockton. 

A letter from Mr. Southard, dated August 23d, 
1823, is as follows: "My dear sir: Mr. Monroe has 
requested me to accept the secretaryship of the 
navy. I see many difficulties before me in doing it. 
May I beg of you as a personal frie*nd, to tell me 
what is best; you know as well or better than myself. 
In great haste, yours, etc." 



218 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Of course I advised him, as I supposed he wished, 
and as I certainly thought right for him and right 
for the country, that he should accept the position. 
I had not then heard what I was afterwards told, 
that before his election as senator, he had been as- 
sured by Mr. Monroe, that if he should obtain a seat 
in the senate, and a suitable opportunity should 
offer, he would place him in his cabinet. It was said 
that one of his friends, to whom he wrote a similar 
letter to that addressed to me, wrote to him for an- 
swer, — I suppose, however, more in jest than in ear- 
nest : " No. Stick to your law and to politics, about 
which you know something ; but let alone the navy, 
about which you know nothing." It may indeed 
seem to some persons, not very well acquainted with 
the workings of our government, that a lawyer is not 
the most likely person to make a satisfactory secre- 
tary of navy. But I believe experience has shown 
that this is an error. A large majority of those who 
have held that office have been educated as lawyers, 
and those of a different class have for the most part 
proved failures. It is certain that Mr. Southard so 
managed his department as to entirely satisfy the 
two presidents under whom he acted, and as to gain 
the respect of the officers of the navy who were 
subject to his orders. His devotion to the best inter- 
ests of that department of the public service was 
untiring, and his success in managing it was gener- 
ally acknowledged. 

When John Quincy Adams was elected President, 
and formed his cabinet about eighteen months after 
Mr. Southard had been made secretary of the navy, 
there were, as is usual in such cases, many specula- 
tions and many intrigues relating to his place. Mr. 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 219 

Clay had made the mistake so fatal to his success as 
an aspirant for the presidency, of accepting the office 
of secretary of state, then supposed to be in the 
right line of the succession, after he had by his vote 
and influence aided in electing Adams, in preference 
to Jackson, who had obtained a plurality of the elec- 
toral votes, and whose popularity proved so irresisti- 
ble. He was naturally anxious that his associates in 
the cabinet should be not merely men fit for their 
offices, but politicians who could command an influ- 
ential popular vote ; and it was well understood he 
was desirous that Mr. Southard should give place to 
some strono;er man. But Mr. Adams declined to be 
governed by such motives. Probably no president 
since the days of Washington has endeavored to re- 
gard the fitness of the person appointed, for his sta- 
tion, so exclusively as Mr. Adams. He declined to 
remove Mr. Southard, and declined also to appoint 
William Henry Harrison Commander-in-chief of the 
army, as Mr. Clay wished, conferring the appoint- 
ment on General Macomb, as entitled to it by senior- 
ity of rank. How far Mr. Southard was acquainted 
at the time with the course of Mr. Clay in this mat- 
ter, I do not know.- He spoke and wrote of him to 
me as if he had his entire confidence. In a letter 
dated in January, 1828, he writes, " I have been 
taught by my intercourse with him, to place a high 
estimate on his talents and worth." Subsequently 
he was forced to the conclusion that he could not 
reckon him among his friends. 

From the election of Mr. Monroe, in 1816, to the 
election of Jackson, in 1828, the political relations of 
the men taking an active part in party proceedings 
assumed a new shape. The old Federalists were utterly 



220 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

dispirited and ceased to act as a party. Many of the 
Democrats were tired of the bitter conflicts through 
which they had passed, and were ready to meet the 
overtures of their opponents, and to enjoy peace. 
Mr. Monroe belonged to this party, and in 1820 was 
reelected unanimously. There were, however, still 
many of the Democrats who for various reasons did 
not sympathize with this feeling. At the election for 
his successor in 1824, the old party organizations 
were powerless, and new ones had not become so far 
consolidated as to exercise much influence. The elec- 
toral votes were divided between Jackson, Adams, 
Crawford, and Clay; Mr. Calhoun receiving nearly 
all the votes as vice-president, of those who voted 
for Jackson and Adams, a large ' majority of the 
whole. And so confused were the prevailing polit- 
ical opinions, that both Jackson and Adams were 
voted for by some as Democrats and by others as 
substantially Federalists. As a general rule, those 
Federalists who had been special admirers of General 
Hamilton voted for Jackson, considering Mr. Adams 
as a deserter. The old and more earnest Democrats 
in Virginia and elsewhere were for Crawford, but his 
ill-health and other circumstances put him behind. 
When it was ascertained that the election would de- 
volve on Congress, which body was obliged to select 
the president from the three having the most votes, 
of whom Mr. Clay was not one, the final result was 
very doubtful. Clay was speaker of the house of 
representatives, and much depended on his course. 
There had been a misunderstanding between him and 
Mr. Adams ; but there were many reasons for believ- 
ing that he would prefer him to Jackson, although 
the latter had received a plurality of the votes. No 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 221 

one could foresee what the future political combina- 
tions would be, and it was obvious that this would 
depend very much upon the course taken by the in- 
fluential members of Congress. It was said, and I 
have rea?-on to believe with truth, that at one time 
the members from Virginia had determined to give 
the vote of that State for Mr. Adams. Had this been 
done, it would have been such a decided recognition 
of his claims as a Democrat, that in all probability 
his administration would have been received and 
supported by that party, and the friends of Jackson 
would have found it necessary to rally under a differ- 
ent name. This was the opinion of Mr. Adams him- 
self, strongly expressed in a letter to Walsh, the edi- 
tor of a newspaper in Philadelphia, which he pub- 
lished. The result, however, was, that when it was 
ascertained that Mr. Clay and his special friends 
would vote for Adams, and that in all probability he 
would be the leading man in the new administration, 
the vote of Virginia was withheld from Mr. Adams 
and cast for Crawford. 

Pretty soon after the inauguration of Mr. Adams, 
a very decided hostility to him was manifested in 
Congress and throughout the country. To most of 
the rank and file of the old Democrats, his very 
name was odious. Mr. Southard found his position 
by no means an easy one. Mr. Dickerson, the lead- 
ing senator from New Jersey, was not his friend, and 
his successor Mr. Mcllvaine, was not able to render 
him a very efficient support. His letters have fre- 
quent references to this state of things. Of the 
date 16th April, 1826, he writes: "I entered this ad- 
ministration with a perfect understanding that it was \ 
to be a continuation of Mr. Monroe's ; founded on ^ 



222 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the same principles, governed by the same policy. 
I have yet seen nothing to make me doubt that it is 
so, and as such it merits and shall receive my sup- 
port. When it ceases to be so, I cease to form a part 
of it. In takhig the course I do, and in devoting my 
best exertions to what I suppose to be the best inter- 
ests of the country, I have hoped for the support of 
New Jersey. Should this hope fail me, my course is 
not and cannot be doubtful. I cannot burden an ad- 
ministration with the opposition of my friends. I see 
no reason to apprehend this result ; but I am prepared 
for it. The representation of New Jersey, considering 
that they voted for General Jackson, seem disposed to 
act a friendly and fair part to the present administra- 
tion. From this remark there is one exception in the 
senate." The New Jersey delegation in Congress 
voted for Jackson on the avowed ground that he had 
received the electoral vote of the State. 

In July, after this letter was written, I casually 
met Mr. Southard at Trenton, and he entered into 
an earnest conversation with me in regard to the 
election of a senator, it being rumored that Mr. Mc- 
Ilvaine would resign, or at all events decline a re- 
election. Much anxiety was expressed that some 
person should be selected upon whom he could de- 
pend as a personal friend and a decided supporter of 
the administration ; and his preference seemed to be 
for Dr. Holcombe, then a member of Congress, who 
was a warm personal friend from their college days, 
and who it was known was ambitious of a seat in the 

senate. 

I happened to know, from confidential correspond- 
ence with Holcombe, what I found he did not know, 
that Holcombe was very much opposed to Mr. 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 223 

Adams, and had made up his mind to go for Jack- 
.son. I therefore advised him to see the doctor, and 
for that purpose he rode out to his residence at Al- 
len town. The result of the interview was that he 
found it necessary to relinquish that purpose. 
Shortly afterwards Mcllvaine died, and at the ensu- 
ing joint meeting, in the fall of 1826, Ephraim Bate- 
man, ^nendly enough to Mr. Adams, and not hostile 
to Southard, but not to be reckoned as a personal 
friend, was elected by his own vote, in opposition to 
Frelinghuysen, upon whom he might have depended 
as a friend of himself and of the administration. 
Holcombe, who was a gentleman of fine culture and 
good talents, but who had no great fitness for polit- 
ical life, died at an early age in 1828. • 

As the final contest between Adams and Jackson 
drew near, it became more and more apparent that 
Mr. Adams must fail. But his supporters, and Mr. 
Southard among them, were slow to learn this. In 
the fall of 1827 I was at Albany, as one of the com- 
missioners for settling the line between New Jersey 
and New York. Mr. Clinton was then governor, and 
the legislature of New York w\as holding an extra 
session. Happening to be engaged writing in my 
room at the hotel, a door into an adjoining room was 
so open that I necessarily overheard a conversation 
between two democratic members of the legislature, 
in which one announced to the other that it was set- 
tled that the Bucktail party, as the Democrats of that 
State were then called, would declare for Jackson. I 
had also heard it stated that Mrs. Clinton, who was 
used as the straw which showed how the wind blew, 
had openly declared her preference for Jackson ; and 
in corroboration of this, Mr. Cambrelling, then a lead- 



[.» > 



224 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ing democratic politician, stated unreservedly at the 
dinner table, that New York would vote for Jackson, 
assigning as the reason that Clinton was in his favor, 
and the Bucktails would be, so that Mr. Adams would 
be left without the support of either of the organized 
parties of that State ; all of which proved true. Clin- 
ton died before Jackson's election, but most of his 
friends supported him, and had he lived he would no 
doubt have been the secretary of state. 

When I returned home, I informed Mr. Southard of 
what I had heard, and stated my own impression that 
Mr. Adams would be defeated. He answered, of the 
date of October 7, 1827: "I have still stronger hopes 
and higher confidence than you entertain about the 
result of the c«ming presidential contest, and if I can 
find the time will, in a few days, give you my reasons. 
I have in my visit to Albany had some opportunity of 
looking into the state of feeling and opinion in New 
York. I have come to a different conclusion from that 
mentioned by you." The result was that the electoral 
vote of New York was divided, a majority voting for 
Jackson. 

New Jersey gave a decided majority for Mr. Adams. 
A very considerable number of the old Democrats, 
among whom I was myself numbered, with most of 
my old political friends who had been in public life, 
supported him ; while many of the old federal leaders 
went for Jackson. The change in the political rela- 
tions of the leading men of the State at this time 
was very remarkable. Many of the old Federalists 
became life-long Democrats, among whom were Wall, 
Vroom, Ryerson, Haines ; while some of them, like 
Parker and Chetwood, after Jackson's time went back 
to their old party relations. Many old Democrats, like 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 225 

the Penningtons, became life-long opponents of the 
democratic party; while others, although opposed to 
Jackson, afterwards acted with the Democrats. As a 
general rule, the mass of voters adhered to the party 
names, as they still do. 

I agreed with Mr. Southard in thinking that Gen- 
eral Jackson had many high qualities, but besides 
the objection that his popularity was merely that of 
a successful soldier, his peculiar temper rendered him. 
a dangerous man to be at the head of the government. 
His integrity was unquestionable, and he had an in- 
domitable will ; but his violent passions made him 
liable to very improper influences. The manner in 
which he removed the deposits of the government 
money from the Bank of the United States, corrupt 
as that institution proved to be, and unnecessary, in- 
deed injurious, as such an institution really was to 
the business of the country, was decisive evidence 
of his unfitness for the station he occupied. As to his 
removals from office, merely upon political grounds, 
improper as the practice was and is, and first reduced 
to a system during his presidency, I regard it rather 
as the result of those influences which raised him to 
the office than as being his individual act. The truth 
is, he was the first chief magistrate, after Washing- 
ton, really elected by the people. At his election 
the democratic element of our government first mani- 
fested its full power; his majority in New Jersey, and 
probably elsewhere, was greatly increased by the votes 
of obscure persons who had never voted before. The 
framers of the constitution intended that the electors 
chosen for the purpose should exercise their own 
judgments, and choose the fittest man. This was 
found impracticable from the first.. But still, until 

15 



226 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

1828, the political leaders, through a congressional 
caucus, chose the President ; the popular mind was 
never stirred to its depths ; a full vote was not ob- 
tained, and the mass of those who did vote, did not 
feel that the choice was theirs. Now all was changed. 
The consequence was that the busy politicians, whose 
personal efforts influenced the voters and brought 
them to the polls, demanded what* they naturally 
deemed their share of the spoils, and demanded it in 
tones that admitted of no denial. Parties in a popular 
government, as was wittily said by Charles Townsend, 
a leading politician in the time of George II., — " par- 
ties, like snakes, are propelled by their tails." Noth- 
ing apparently can free us from this bad system but 
such an experience of its evils as will lead to an effi- 
cient civil service bill, requiring competitive exami- 
nation of candidates. 

The legislature of New Jersey, in the fall of 1828, 
contained a decided majority of the friends of Mr. 
Adams. Ephraim Bateman was compelled by bad 
health to resign his seat in the senate. Southard was 
still at Washington, but had written to me in Novem- 
ber, "I have always looked forward to a return to 
I Trenton as the place of my permanent residence, and 
it is my intention to return there immediately after 
the fourth of March next. I am, and always have 
been poor, and must look to my daily exertions for 
the support of my family." At the joint meeting 
held in January, 1829, he was put forward as a candi- 
date for the senate ; but the late William B. Ewing, 
then speaker, and several others were also candidates, 
and Southard was opposed upon the ground that he 
was not an inhabitant of the State, as the senator 
elected was required to be by the constitution. How- 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 227 

ever reasonable this objection might have been as a 
ground for preferring another person, it was not the 
interpretation which has prevailed in Congress. After 
numerous ineifectual votes, a resolution was offered 
and carried by a" majority of the votes, that he was 
not elig-ible to the office, and the final result was that 
Mahlon Dickerson was chosen. At a subsequent joint 
meeting held in February, Theodore Frelinghuysen 
w\as elected senator to fill the vacancy until the en- 
suing fourth of March, occasioned by the resignation 
of Dickerson, and for the full term of six years com- 
mencing at that date. Shortly afterwards Southard 
was chosen attorney-general of the State by a ma- 
jority of one vote, in the place of Mr. Frelinghuysen, 
who resigned. He returned with his family to Tren- 
ton. A letter from Rev. Dr. J. W. Alexander to Dr. 
Hall, dated Trenton, May 11, 1829, states: "Mr. 
Southard is very much broken, stoops like a man of 
seventy, and seems melancholy. If he recovers, he 
will probably be our next governor." 

In another letter dated July 30, he writes : " Mr. 
Southard has been making a speech at Newark, which 
was attended by a vast audience, is greatly admired, 
and w^ill be printed. I should like to introduce you 
to him. He is one of the most agreeable companions 
I have ever found, and pays us far more attention 
than we could ever demand of him. His popularity 
in this State is rapidly rising to its former acme." 

In 1822 he had been chosen one of the trustees of 
Princeton College. In 1832 the University of Penn- 
sylvania conferred on him the degree of LL. D. His 
health seems always to have been delicate. He was 
able, however, to enter upon the duties of attorney- 
general j and as the offit)e was then without more 



228 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

than a nominal salary, he was obliged to select the 
counties affording the best income from the fees be- 
longing to it, and soon had a large practice as a law- 
yer. I remember that meeting him in the fall of 
1832, after it was known that his party had suc- 
ceeded in electing a majority of the members of the 
legislature, he remarked to me that he should be 
called upon by his friends to again take the place of 
senator ; but that he preferred to be left where he 
was, as he was now for the first time in his life mak- 
ing something more than a support. I had no doubt 
his best judgment dictated this course ; but I did 
not expect, indeed he did not pretend, that he would 
have the firmness to resist the temptation again to 
be prominent in political life. It must be acknowl- 
edged that like many other of our men in public 
office, he was consumed by the fever of ambition. 

When the time came, and the joint meeting as- 
sembled, he allowed himself to be elected governor; 
and then with great difficulty prevailed on his friends 
to elect him senator, thus producing the necessity of 
resigning as governor, and helping so to distract his 
party that they lost their majority in the State, and 
did not regain it for several years. As he was gov- 
ernor only about three months, he held but one term 
of the court of chancery, and transacted no business 
of any consequence. He took the opportunity, how- 
ever, when called upon to deliver to the legislature 
in January, 1833, documents received from the gov- 
ernor of South Carolina containing the celebrated or- 
dinance of that State professing to nullify certain laws 
of Congress, to address a long and very able message 
to the council and Assembly, denying in the most ab- 
solute and positive manner the right of any State to 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 229 

determine for itself the constitutionality of an act of 
Congress, and concurring in the views promulgated 
by General Jackson in his proclamation, although 
expressing " regret at expressions which might be 
regarded as personal invective." 

In 1827 Mr. Southard delivered the anniversary 
address before the Columbian Institute at Washing- 
ton, a society formed to promote the claims of science, 
of which he was a member, that was published and 
attracted much notice as an eloquent argument in 
favor of the object of the association. In 1830 he 
delivered a somewhat, similar address before the New- 
ark Mechanics' Association ; and in 1832 he delivered 
three different addresses, which were published. One 
of them was an eulogium upon his friend Chief 
Justice Ewing, and was a fit tribute of respect and 
affection to the character of a great and good man, 
whose sudden and unexpected death when at the 
meridian of his powers and usefulness, so shocked 
all who knew him. Afterwards he was selected at 
Washington to prepare and deliver a similar dis- 
course on the professional character and virtues of 
William Wirt. 

These and some other productions of a similar na- 
ture showed him to have a peculiar talent for com- 
positions of this description, and that he was entitled 
to rank with Sergeant, Webster, Everett, and Binney 
in fullness of knowledge and aptness of expression. 
An address before the societies at Princeton, delivered 
in 1837, in which he took for his topic the import- 
ance of the study of the Bible, in forming the char- 
acter of literary and scientific men, of scholars of 
every grade and every occupation, attracted great 
and deserved attention. It is a remarkable effort, 



230 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

full not only of wise and fatherly admonition, bnt of 
the most apt and beautiful classical quotations and 
allusions, illustrated by references to the writings of 
Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and other great authors of 
ancient times, and contrasts of their failures with the 
perfect moral law of the Scriptures. His concluding 
words deserve ever to sound in the ears of students 
and of lawyers : — 

" Of all men, American scholars, and you among them, ought not 
to be ignorant of anything which this book contains. If Cicero 
could declare that the Laws of the Twelve Tables were worth all the 
libraries of the philosophers, if they were the carmen necessarium 
of the Roman youth, how laboriously, manu nocturnce diurnaque, 
ought you to investigate its contents, and inscribe them upon your 
hearts. You owe to them the blessed civil institutions under which 
you live, and the glorious freedom which you enjoy ; and if these are 
to be perpetuated it can only be by a regard to those principles. 
Civil and religious liberty is more indebted to Luther and Calvin, 
and their compeers of the Reformation, and to the Puritans and 
Protestants of England, and to the Huguenots of France, than to 
any other men who ever lived in the annals of time. They led the 
way to that freedom, firmness, and independence of thought and 
investigation, and the adoption of these principles, as the guide in 
social government, as well as private actions, which created a per- 
sonal self-respect and firmness in its defense, which conducted us 
to a sense of equal rights and privileges, and eventually to the adop- 
tion of free written constitutions as the limitations of power. 

" Be you imitators of them. Make your scholarship subservient 
to the support of the same unchanging principles. They are as nec- 
essary now as ever they were to the salvation of your country, and 
all that is dear to your hopes. The world is yet to be proselyted 
to them. Religion and liberty must go hand in hand, or America 
cannot be established, the bondage of the European man broken, 
Africa enlightened, and Asia regenerated. And even here we are 
not without peril. Look abroad ; are not the pillars of our edifice 
shaken ? Is not law disregarded ? Are not moral and social prin- 
ciples weakened ? Are not the wretched advocates of infidelity 
busy ? The sun has indeed risen upon our mountain tops ; but it has 
not yet scattered the damps and the darkness of the valleys. The 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. • 231 

passions are roused and misled. Ancient institutions are scorned. 
Our refuge is in the firm purpose of educated and moral men. Draw 
then your rules of action from the only safe authority. Hang your 
banner on their outer wall. Stand by them in trial and in triumph. 
Dare to maintain them in every position and every vicissitude, and 
make your appeal to the source from which they are drawn. And 
then come what may, contempt or fame, you cannot fall ; and your 
progress at every step will be greeted by the benedictions of the wise 
and good." 

After his return to the senate in 1833, Mr. South- 
ard took an active part in the proceedings of that 
body, speaking and voting generally in the minority, 
until the close of the administration of Mr. Van 
Buren in 1841. In the fall of 1838 he was reelected 
to another full term. In 1841 he was elected presi- 
dent of the senate, and upon the retirement of Vice- 
President Tyler, filled that office permanently until 
his death, and had the entire confidence of all par- 
ties, as a dignified, impartial, and able presiding of- 
ficer. But he was not without his trials. When 
Harrison was selected as the candidate of the Whi^ 

o 

party, and the delegates to the convention from New 
Jersey cast their votes for General Scott, Mr. Clay, 
taking for granted that this was done by the advice 
of Mr. Southard, openly accused him of hostility to 
him. I heard the late Roswell L. Colt, of Paterson, 
say he was present when Mr. Clay " abused him shame- 
fully." The fact was, however, that Mr. Southard had 
no part in the matter. Of all the public men I 
have known,, he seemed to have the least tact and 
skill as a party leader. This was the more remark- 
able, because he was always a favorite with his party. 
He was engaging in his personal intercourse, and was 
justly considered their ablest man ; but he had no 
skill as an organizer, and indeed no faculty of appre- 
ciating the capabilities of others as party leaders. 



232 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Returning to his practice at the bar, when he 
ceased to be secretary of the navy, he soon had a 
large business. He cannot be said to have been a pro- 
foundly learned lawyer, but he was a skillful advocate, 
generally clear and correct in his conceptions, seizing 
readily the strong points of his cause, and bringing 
them forward by a distinct and lucid statement, and 
presenting his arguments with great earnestness and 
force. His voice was usually pleasant, and had great 
compass and power, but he not unfrequently pitched 
his tones so high as to render it exceedingly harsh 
and disagreeable. He did not always guard his prop- 
ositions with due care. I remember that shortly 
after he was first made senator, I was retained to 
argue an admiralty case before Judge Washington, 
and learning that I was to oppose Southard, I ex- 
pressed to General Wall my apprehensions that he 
would be too strong for me. Prompt to encourage a 
beginner, his reply was, " You have no reason to be 
afraid ; he will make a strong assault, but he is apt to 
forget that in a hard combat a shield is often as nec- 
essary as a sword." I do not remember the particu- 
lars of the argument ; but as my client had a decree 
in his favor, I was satisfied. 

In 1838 he was appointed the president of the 
Morris Canal and Banking Company, and from that 
time took up his residence in Jersey City. It is not 
probable that he possessed any special financial 
ability, or that the directors of this institution ex- 
pected him to perform any onerous duties connected 
with the station. But he had a high character for 
integrity and ability, and was now universally known 
and respected throughout the country ; character- 
istics for which it was thought worth while to give 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 233 

him a good salary, and thus obtain the benefit of his 
name in aid of an institution that needed the sup- 
port of a strong pillar. 

He died at the house of his wife's brother, in Fred- 
ericksburg, June 26, 1842, having been obliged by 
increasing illness to leave his place as president of 
the senate several weeks previously. 

Upon his death becoming known to Congress, the 
usual resolutions Af respect and condolence were 
adopted. In the senate, Mr. King of Alabama, after- 
wards elected Vice-President of the United States, 
who did not then belong to the same party, said of 
him with much feeling, and I believe with much sin- 
cerity and truth : — 

" It has been my fortune for many years to be 
intimately acquainted with the distinguished man 
whose death has just been announced. I have known 
him in private life, and can bear testimony to his 
kindness of heart, amiableness of disposition, and 
uniform courtesy. I have known him in public sta- 
tions, and can with the same truthfulness testify to 
his courtesy, and the ability with which he discharged 
the various trusts confided to his care." 

The most felicitous description of him is contained 
in a letter from Rev. Dr. J. W. Alexander, who was 
several years pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 
Trenton, to Dr. Hall, after his death : — 

" Samuel L. Southard was also a member of the congregation, 
and a friend of all that promised its good. More sprightly and ver- 
satile than Mr. Ewing, he resembled a tropical tree of rapid growth. 
Few men ever attained earlier celebrity in New Jersey. This per- 
haps tended to produce a certain character which showed itself in 
good natured egotism. Mr. Southard was a man of genius and 
eloquence, who made great impressions on a first interview, or by a 
single argument. He loved society, and shone in company. His 



234 EEMmiSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

entertainments will be long remembered by the associates of his 
youth. 

" It is not my province to speak of his great efforts at the bar ; 
he was always named after Stockton, Johnson, and Ewing, and 
with Frelinghuysen, Wood, Williamson, and their coevals. Having 
been bred under the discipline of Dr. Finley, at Baskingridge, he 
was thoroughly versed in Presbyterian doctrine and ways, loving 
and preferring this branch of the Church to the day of his death. 
Defection from its ranks gave him sincere grief, as I am ready more 
largely to attest if need be. In those days of his prime, Mr. 
Southard was greatly under the salutary fcifluence of the chief 
justice, who was his mentor. I think he felt the loss of this great 
man in some important points. So earnestly and even tenderly did 
he yield himself to divine impressions, that his friends confidently 
expected that he would become a communicant. During this period 
he was an ardent advocate of the temperance society, then in its 
early stage. I remember attending a meeting at Lawrenceville, in 
company with my learned friend, the present chief justice, where 
Mr. Southard, following Mr. Frelinghuysen, made an impassioned 
address in favor of abstinence and the pledge. In regard to re- 
ligious things, the change to Washington did not tend to increase 
solemnity or zeal. I have been informed that Mr. Southard felt the 
deep impression of divine truth at the close of his days. As a 
young minister, I received from him the affectionate forbearance of 
an elder brother, and I shall always cherish his memory with love." 

Elias p. Seeley was chosen by the joint meeting 
governor in March, 1833, upon the election of Gov- 
ernor Southard to be senator, and held the office un- 
til the fall of that year, when the Jackson party 
obtained a majority of the legislature, and Mr. Vroom 
became governor. Mr. Seeley was the descendant 
of one of the Puritan settlers of Fairfield, Cumber- 
land County, who came there from Connecticut about 
the year 1698. His father removed when he was a 
child, to Bridgeton, held many county offices, and was 
several times a member of the Assembly and council 
of the State. 



ELIAS P. SEELEY. 235 

Governor Seeley was a fellow-stiidcnt with me in 
the office of Daniel Ehner, Esq., and was licensed as 
an attorney at the same time that I was, in May, 
1815. He had but a limited education, and never 
attained to much celebrity as an advocate, but had 
a good local practice as an attorney and conveyancer, 
and was very highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens. 
He became a member of the legislative council in 
1829, was reelected for three or four successive years, 
and in 1832 was choseii the vice-president of that 
body. 

While he held the office of governor and chan- 
cellor, he delivered several opinions in equity cases 
argued before him ; but none of them have been 
printed. The most important case argued before 
him was the celebrated Quaker case, which com- 
menced on the appeal from the decree of the chan- 
cellor, in the court of appeals, of which' he was as 
governor the presiding officer, in July, 1833, and con- 
tinued more than a month, nine days being consumed 
in the reading of the evidence. The counsel were 
Ga^et D. Wall and Samuel L. Southard for the ap- 
pellants (the party designated as the Hickites), and 
George Wood and Theodore Frelinghuysen for the 
Orthodox. The result was that the orio-iual decree 
was affirmed, seven of the judges, including Governor 
Seeley, being for affirmance, and four for reversal. 
Upon announcing the decision, however, by order of 
the court, he read a carefully prepared recommendation 
that the litigant parties should make an amicable 
compromise, in regard to the property in dispute and 
the other property held by the society ; and this 
recommendation was subsequently carried out by a 
special law, which still remains on the statute book, 



236 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSET. 

whereby it was enacted that the rights, estates, prop- 
erty, and privileges of the members of the unin- 
corporated Society of Friends in this State should 
not be hurt, or in any way affected, by the division 
and separation which had occurred ; and doubtful as 
the constitutional efl&cacy of this act may be, there 
has been no attempt to impugn its provisions. 

Mr. Seeley was in subsequent years several times 
a member of the legislature. He died in 1846, at the 
comparatively early age of fifty-five. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GOVERNORS I HAVE KNOWN. 
WILLIAM PENNINGTON. PHILEMON DICKERSON. D.iNIEL HAINES. 

^ILLIAM PENNINGTON, governor and chancel- 
lor from 1837 to 1843, was the son of Governor V, 
William S. Pennington, and was born Newark in ' 
1790. After the usual preparatory education in the 
schools of his native city, he entered Princeton Col- ^ 
lege, and graduated at that institution in the year 
1813. He studied law as the pupil of Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen, and in his after life was accustomed to ^ 
acknowledge with deep feeling the benefit of his in- 
structions and example. He was licensed as an attor- ... i 
ney in 1817, as a counselor in 1820, and in 1834 was 
called to be a sergeant at law. 

Continuing to reside in Newark, he soon married 
an estimable lady, a descendant of Dr. William Bur- > 
net, surgeon-general of the army, with whom he lived ^ 
more than forty years a happy husband and father, 
and who still survives. I became acquainted with —4 
him in 1824, when I entered upon the duties of 
United States attorney for New Jersey, and found him \f 
clerk of the circuit and district courts. We were 
thus thrown for several years into very intimate in- 
tercourse, and became attached friends as long as he 
lived. Never did I meet a more genial companion, or 



^ 



238 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

a more desirable associate. Adopting the admirable 
estimate of his character contained in the funeral 
discourse of his pastor, Rev. Dr. Poor, I can say, "He 
was an honorable man, standing in the foremost rank 
of those who merit that appellation. Honorable was 
the title he wore in virtue of the official stations which 
he from time to time occupied ; but men when they 
called him by that title never sneered as they some- 
times do in other cases, thinking what a satire it is 
upon the littleness of those who so often happen to 
acquire it. They gave it him cordially. They felt it 
belonged to him by more than human right ; the fit- 
ting prefix to a stately name, and the appropriate 
designation of a noble character, thinking more of 
his manly worth than of his official station. And 
how much there was in him that went to warrant the 
title. The fundamental qualities of his nature, those 
elements, I mean, which formed the real stufi* of the 
man, and rendered him peculiarly what he was, and 
earned for him his distinction, were, as I conceive, 
sound practical common sense, cautious judgment, 
thorough sincerity, integrity of purpose, quick intui- 
tive perceptions of and a strong regard for the right, 
all strengthened and regulated by a profound convic- 
tion of the truth and reality of religion, a conviction 
which obtained in him with singular force, long before 
he professed a vital faith in Christianity, which rend- 
ered him from the first a habitual attendant on divine 
worship, and a considerate respecter of sacred things. 
These powers and virtues formed the underlying 
granite of the man. They were not acquired, but 
innate qualities ; habits, in the old sense of the term, 
which showed themselves spontaneously and gave him 
his peculiar type, and laid the foundation for future 
attainments and distinction." 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 239 

It was almost a matter of course that such a man 
should soon have a respectable practice as a lawyer. 
Residing as we did in different parts of the State, and 
never attending the same circuits, I did not come into 
contact with him in the trial of causes ; but I knew 
that his course was all the time uj)wards. He had 
mastered the great principles of the law, but was not 
a diligent student, nor at all disposed to pay atten- 
tion to the minuti^ of the profession. I remember 
saying to him fxmiliarly, after he had been some time 
chancellor, that he might adorn his opinions with a 
little more display of learning. His reply was : " I 
am more concerned to decide rightly than to display 
learning. When I had finished my studies with Mr. 
Frelinghuysen, he said to me one day, ' William, now 
you must apply yourself diligently to your books;' 
but I replied, ' Mr. Frelinghuysen, I think I shall try 
with how little learning I can get along; '" and then 
turning to me, he added, " Don't you think I have 
succeeded pretty well ? " He did succeed remarkably 
well, having industry, enough, to study the facts and 
law, and sagacity to lay hold of and fully understand 
the substantial merits of the cases brought before 
him. 

The Pennington family, I believe without excep- 
tion, as well as many others of the leading Democrats, 
were supporters of John Quincy Adams as against ""t" 
Jackson. When in the progress of events the friends 
of Jackson became identified with the mass of the 
Democrats, and however before named were ranked 
as members of the great democratic party, the result 
was that most of the before Democrats who supported 
Adams ceased to belong to that party, and with such 
of the old Federalists as adhered to him, composing in 



240 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

fact the majority of them, formed a new party, which 
first asmxied the name of National Republicans, and 
in 1834 of Whigs. William Pennington belonged to 
this party, and for several years was the acknowledged 
leader of the Whigs in this State, a position for which 
he was peculiarly fitted. 

It was not until the jealousy of some of that party, 
who aspired to be leaders, had to some extent dis- 
placed him from that position, that they ceased to 
rule the State. He supported the Republicans, in 
V spite of his objection to Fremont, — his distrust of 
whom subsequent developments showed to be well 
founded, because of his attachment to Mr. Dayton, the 
candidate for vice-president, and of his alienation for 
so many years from the Democrats. 

In the year 1828 he represented the County of 
Essex in the Assembly. In the fall of 1837, after 
Jackson had ceased to be president, and was suc- 
>.^ ceeded by Mr. Van Buren, the Whigs having obtained 
a majority of the members of the legislature, selected 
Pennington as governor. He was reelected every 
year until 1843, when the Democrats again prevailed, 
and he was superseded by Daniel Haines, the last gov- 
ernor elected by the joint meeting, who held the office 
until the adoption of the new constitution in 1845, 
which required the governor to be chosen by a pop- 
ular vote, and separated the office of chancellor from 
that of governor. The agitation of the question of 
modifying the defective Constitution of 1776, favored 
by most of the Democrats, and opposed, or at least 
disliked, by most of the Whigs, had much to do with 
the change. For the last forty years New Jersey has 
been a doubtful State as to politics, a seemingly un- 
important matter often producing a change ; and this 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 241 

is probably a great advantage, since, as politics are 
managed in the United States, nothing acts as so re- 
liable a check npon the despotic measures a great 
majority are always prone to adopt, as the fear of 
losing their power. Indeed I think the early as well 
as the later history of our country has shown, that 
notwithstanding the great pains taken by the framers 
of our excellent constitution, so to arrange the bal- 
ance of powers in the general government as to pre- 
vent a triumphant popular majority from oppressing 
the minority, they succeeded very imperfectly. 

During the six years he sat as chancellor and judge 
of the prerogatire court, his decisions gave general 
satisfaction. He took a common sense view of the 
cases brought before him, and discerned the true 
equity between the parties with intuitive sagacity. 
But one of his decrees was overruled in the court of 
appeals, and that was heard after he ceased to pre- 
side, and turned on very doubtful questions, — the 
weight of legal opinion being in favor of his decision. 
Probably no man that ever acted as the presiding offi- 
cer of the old court of errors exercised such a control- 
ling influence over its decisions as he did. The purity 
of his motives was never questioned. His opinions 
are reported in the first and third volumes of Green's 
Chancery Reports, and are models of condensed and 
lucid exposition. When research was absolutely nec- 
essary he did not shrink from the duty, but ordi- 
narily he contented himself with that obvious view of 
the case which served to show on which side exact 
justice required the decision. In the case of the will 
of Abraham Coursens, 3 Green C. R 410, he made au 
elaborate examination of the jurisdiction and power 
of the governor, as ordinary and surrogate general, 

16 



-^ 



242 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and of the orphans' courts and surrogates', and se1> 
tied their respective boundaries in a manner entirely 
satisfactory. During the time he was chancellor, pre- 
ferring to confine myself mainly to a home practice 
I had ceased to be a regular attendant of the courts 
at Trenton, and therefore argued but few cases before 
him ; but I continued to be intimate with him, and 
know that he gave great satisfaction as a judge to the 
bar and to suitors. 

In the execution of his duties as governor, a cir- 
cumstance occurred which exposed him to much un- 
~f just obloquy and reproach from some of his political 
opponents. The congressional election of 1838 was 
warmly contested throughout the Union, and in New 
Jersey the contest was very severe and close. Six 
members were to be elected by a general ticket, and 
in two of the counties the clerks had rejected some 
of the townships' returns, for real or alleged defi- 
ciencies in the form of the certificates of election, or 
in the time of delivering them. The omission of the 
votes in these townships gave to five of the Whig can- 
■^ didates majorities which they would not obtain if all 
the votes were counted ; one of the Whig candidates 
(Joseph F. Randolph, afterwards justice of the su- 
preme court) having run a little ahead of his ticket, 
was elected beyond dispute. As the election law of 
the State then was, it became the duty of the gov- 
ernor, with the aid of his privy council, to cast up 
the number of votes for each candidate, and deter- 
mine the six persons who had the greatest number 
of votes, which persons he was directed forthwith to 
commission, under the great seal of the State, to rep- 
resent the State in the house of representatives. In 
the fulfillment of this duty, the governor commis- 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 243 

sioned all the six Whig candidates, who, according to 
the certificates before him, had the greatest number 
of votes. There was at that time no provision in the 
law authorizing him or the clerks to take any meas- 
ures for correcting the returns, so that it became his 
duty to act upon those delivered to him. This pro- 
ceeding was substantially in accordance with a subse- 
quent deci'sion of the supreme court in the case of 
the State vs. The Governor, 1 Dutcher R. 332. 

When the Congress convened, parties were so 
nearly divided that it became manifest that the ma- 
jority would be determined, and the election of a 
speaker and the consequent organization of the com- 
mittees, w^ould depend upon the votes of the five 
members from New Jersey. No law existed regulat- 
ing the mode of organizing the house. Under these 
circumstances, the clerk of the previous Congress, 
who by the rules of the house continued in office 
until his successor was chosen, made up a roll of the 
members, and called them in .order. Upon this oc- 
casion he was a Democrat, and when he had called 
the name of Mr. Randolph, he paused, and proposed, 
if it were the pleasure of the house, to pass over the 
names of the five whose right to seats was to be con- 
tested, the circumstances attending whose election 
and obtaining commissions were well known, and in- 
deed manifested by authentic official documents in 
the hands of the clerk, until the members of the 
remaining States should have been called. A stormy 
and disorderly debate ensued, which continued sev- 
eral days, and ended by the choice of John Quincy 
Adams as temporary chairman, a situation he ac- 
cepted. Upon a motion to call only the names of the 
undisputed members, he decided, that those holding 



244 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the commissions could vote ; but this being appealed 
from his decision was reversed by a vote of one hun- 
dred and fourteen to one hundred and eight, and it 
was finally carried that only the names of the mem- 
bers whose seats were uncontested should be called, 
and that the members thus called should be a quorum 
to settle the claims of members. The result was, 
that on the twelfth day of the session, Robert M. T. 
Hunter, of Virginia, a compromise candidate, was 
chosen speaker, having receiyed one hundred and 
nineteen votes, against fifty-five for J. W. Jones, the 
democratic candidate. On the 28th of February the 
five democratic members, namely. Philemon Dicker- 
son, Peter D. Yroom, Daniel B. Ryall, William R. 
Cooper, and Joseph Kille, were admitted to take 
their seats by a vote of one hundred and eleven to 
eighty-one ; and afterwards, in July, a large amount 
of testimony having been taken, filling a volume of 
nearly seven hundred pages, the committee reported 
that the sitting members were duly elected, which 
was agreed to by a vote of one hundred and two to 
twenty-two. 

Thus ended this contest, so far as Congress was 
concerned ; but much continued to be urged in this 
State, on both sides of the " broad seal war," as it was 
called, for several years. As the case stood, both 
parties were about equally wrong : the Whigs by in- 
sisting, as they did with great earnestness, tliat the 
refusal of their seats to those who held commissions 
under the "broad seal " of the State was a great indig- 
nity to the people of that State ; and the Democrats 
by their clamor against the governor for granting 
those commissions. The governor had no option but 
to issue the commissions, as he did ; but for the 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 245 

house of representatives to allow its organization to 
be radically changed by admitting members who had 
not received a majority of the votes, as fully appeared 
by undisputed documentary evidence, would have been 
a blunder which no party could be expected to make.* 
One good result was the passing of a new election 
law for this State, which remedies most of the defects 
in the old law, and renders another broad seal war 
much less likely to occur. 

At the time he received the appointment of gov- 
ernor, and was thus obliged to abandon his profession 
for a time, Mr. Pennington had an excellent practice -^ 
as a lawyer. I heard him say that he had at least a 
hundred suits in different stages of progress. When* 
he ceased to be governor, he resumed his business, 
and was soon fully employed, although in some re- "'^l 
spects in a different class of cases. He was now 
much relied upon for the argument of causes at the 
bar of the supreme court and in the court of errors. 
He was always listened to with much interest, sel- 
dom fiiling to seize the strong points of his case and 
to urge them with great force. He was one of the 
counsel in the Meeker will case, a celebrated cause 
which for years engaged the attention of the prerog- 
ative and supreme courts of the State and the circuit 
court of the United States, the will being sustained 
by the supreme court, and rejected as spurious by 
the jury. The most important cause in which he 
was engaged after I had a seat on the bench was 
that of Gifford vs. Thorn, 1 Stock. C. R. 702. 

This was indeed one of the most remarkable causes 
ever brought before the courts of this State, not only 
for the large amount of money involved, but for the 
difficult questions of law and fact upon which it 



246 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

turned. It grew out of the will of William Jauncy, 
an Englishman, made in New York in the year 1828, 
which came before the court of chancery of New 
Jersey, in consequence of the residence in this State 

* of one of Jauncy's executors, and the complainant. 
The residue of a large estate amounting to millions, 
was bequeathed to the oldest son of an illegitimate 
daughter of the testator's brother, " when he arrives 
to the age of twenty-one years, to him and his heirs 
forever." 

This son was sent to one of the universities of 
England, and there broke his neck in a steeple chase 
before he reached the age of twenty-one. This raised 

•the question whether the legacy was vested so as to 
descend to the youth's father, or was lapsed so as to 
go to the representatives of the testator, of whom 
there were several, related to him only remotely. 
The person of whose estate Gifford, the complainant, 
was the administrator, in her life-time, and twelve 
years before her death, executed a release for her 
share of the estate in consideration of six thou -and 
dollars, paid according to her directions. The bill 
was filed to set aside this release, upon the allegation 
that she was incompetent to understand what she 
was doing, and was imposed upon, and by threats 
and other improper influences induced to take a 
small sum of money, instead of the two or three hun- 
dred thousand dollars to which she was entitled. 
Chief Justice Green, who sat for the chancellor, held 
that the legacy lapsed by the death of the legatee, 
so as to go, not to his representatives, but to those 
of the testator ; but upon the fiicts of the case, re- 
fused to set aside the release, and dismissed the bill. 
When the case came on for argument before the 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 247 

court of appeals, Whitehead and Wood were heard 
for the appellant, and Pennington and Charles O'Con- 
ner of New York for the appellees. Seldom if ever 
has a case been argued with more ability. Each of 
the counsel were allowed a full da}^, and all of them 
made uncommon efforts to succeed. Mr. 0' Conner 
confined himself almost entirely to the legal ques- 
tions, as to which the decision was against him. 
Pennington dwelt mainly on the fticts, and succeeded 
in placing them before the court in a light favorable 
to his clients, and in convincing the judges that the 
decree of the chancellor should be affirmed. His 
argument was of great power and excellence. It is 
proper to remark, however, that the main fact which 
turned the scale in his favor, was the deliberate ac- 
quiescence of the deceased lady in what she had done, 
for so long a time after she had known all the impor- 
tant flicts of the case, and had every opportunity of 
consulting those best qualified to advise her. 

The great popularity and wonderful good sense of 
Governor Pennington made him, as has been before 
remarked, the best leader of the Whig j)arty they 
ever had in the State. But it happened in his case, 
as in some others, that there were in his district 
some gentlemen of his party who thought they had 
been kept in the background long enough, and as- 
pired to be leaders themselves, and no longer to 
remain among the led. The consequence was, that 
at the election for a member of Congress in 1843, 
these persons nominated a Whig in opposition to the 
regular candidate of that party, who, it was alleged, 
although I believe untruly, had been nominated 
throuo:h the Pennino:ton interest; and the Democrats 
falling in with this movement, succeeded in defeat- 



^ 



248 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ing; the reorular candidate. On this occasion, the 
Pennington name was severely attacked, although 
he who stood at its head was not personally assailed, 
so that it may be said with truth, that although at 
one time the Pennington name was made unpopular, 
he himself never was. In the end, as might be ex- 
pected, most of the bolters, and among them their 
candidate, became entirely alienated from the Whig 
party. 

When, in consequence of the change made by the 
new constitution, it became necessary for the gov- 
ernor to nominate a chancellor in 1845, it was sup- 
posed by many of Pennington's friends, and I have 
reason to know desired by himself, that he should be 
restored to that position. But other counsels pre- 
vailed, and he never again held any important state 
office. In 1850, while Fillmore was president, he 
had some expectation of being appointed minister 
at one of the European courts, but the appointment 
of William B. Kinney to Turin prevented his suc- 
cess. He was offered the place of governor of the 
Territory of Minnesota, but this he declined. 

In the year 1858, however, when the political 
troubles in his congressional district had mainly come 
to an end, in spite of the fact that he had perempto- 
rily declined a nomination, he was found to be the 
only man that could command general acquiescence, 
and he was elected a member of the thirty-sixth Con- 
gress. He had little expectation of taking a promi- 
nent part in that body. In this he was greatly dis- 
appointed, for when the body convened in December, 
1859, it appeared that parties were so distracted, and 
the contest between the South and the North had 
assumed such a threatening aspect, that for a time 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 249 

there seemed to be very little prospect of a peacea- 
ble organization of the house. But after a memora- 
ble contest of nearly two months, William Penning- 
ton was selected as speaker. This was certainly 
strong testimony of his character, coming as it did 
from a body of men, very few of whom knew him 
personally, or had any experience of his qualifications 
to fill a position so difficult and so important. 

It was universally conceded that for fairness and 
impartiality, and for wise conciliation, he had no su- 
perior. That he was well skilled in the administra- 
tion of a set of rules very complex in themselves, 
and difficult to understand, could not be affirmed. 

He had never been a member of Congress before, 
and the wonder was that he succeeded so well as he 
did. In a conversation I had with him in reference 
to some of his difficulties, he mentioned as character- 
istic of the dispositions of some of the prominent 
men, that having decided a perplexing question of 
order, thought by his political friends to be of con- 
siderable importance, in opposition to the views 
urged by most of the Whigs, he placed a friend in 
the chair, and retired to his private room while the 
question remained in such a situation that he could 
alter his decision if convinced he was wrong. Send- 
ing for Mr. Grow, who had been speaker before, and 
consulting him, he said at once, "You are clearly 
wrong, sir." Mr. Sherman, on being consulted, quite 
as decidedly said he was right, and should adhere to 
his decision. Mr. Colfax, upon being consulted, said 
he thought it a doubtful question, upon which much 
misrht be said on both sides. 

o 

Governor Pennington was distinguished for good 
humored pleasantry, often rising to wit, and this 



250 REmNlSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

characteristic manifested itself very prominently in 
his public speaking, especially in his political ad- 
dresses. It is impossible to repeat his many good 
sayings, so as to give even a faint idea of their apt- 
ness and humor, without the aid of his voice and 
manner. Two or three of his conversational remarks 
it may be pleasant to recall. When asked what was 
doing at the court-house, he answered : " C. (one of 
the lawyers) tried for half an hour, without success, 
to split a hair ; and when I left, H. was firing away 
at a barn door, but never once hit it." Speaking 
of our two senators, he shrewdly characterized them 
by saying : " If they are engaged only in cutting down 
small trees. Miller will fell them flistest; but when 
they come to a big tree he will have to give place to 
Dayton." Being asked his opinion of the characters 
of two prominent gentlemen who were opposed to 
him in politics, after speaking very flivorably of both, 
he remarked, " But if I was on my back, awaiting 
execution for a political offense, with the guillotine 
ready to fall, and I should see one of them [whom he 
named] coming towards me, I should shut my eyes in 
utter despair, my doom would be certain; but if I I'Mi, 
saw the other near me, I should have hope, and feel 

pretty sure that he would find some way to relieve 

J) 
me. 

Adopting, as expressing my own sentiments, a 
communication from our mutual friend Cortlandt 
Parker, I can say of him that 

" Physically, he was a most imposing man. About six feet two 
inches high, well proportioned, with regular features, an eye serious, 
kind, and beaming with good nature. It was truly said of him in 
one of the notices of his death, that ' manliness, genial good humor, 
and dignity, shone throughout his demeanor.' But to pursue the 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON. 251 

language of the same notice, written by one who, if he loved him 
dearly, yet knew him well, ' the real worth of the man lay in quali- 
ties beneath this pleasing surface. They were, morally, his thor- 
ough reliability, and intellectually, a wonderful common sense ; 
what Locke calls large, roundabout common sense, improved till it 
seemed instinct rather than intellect. We speak of it as a wonder- 
ful common sense. And so it was. We have seen no other man 
possessing it in equal degree. Nor could any amount of learning, 
industry, or ability, invest a public man with a firmer and more in- 
fluential grasp upon the hearts and minds of his fellow-men, than 
through this faculty he attained. It was everywhere the secret of 
his success. In the forum, there was no jnry which could resist the 
effect of views so like pure and unsophisticated wisdom, expressed 
with such transparent honesty of manner. Popular assemblies de- 
lighted in his every word, and seemed to abjure criticism of style 
and diction, in their conviction that everything he said was just 
right. The bench was always enlightened by his clear, though 
peculiar elucidation of the law of his cases ; and the common mind 
in daily life, believed in him implicitly,' 

" Such a man was eminently calculated for chancellor ; and he 
was extremely successful in that high office. But one of his decis- 
ions was ever reversed, and that the bar in general indorsed as cor- 
rect. He had almost a contempt for form. He disliked labor, and 
was not distinguished for research. But his instinctive common 
sense carried him right; and his opinions, couched in a peculiar, 
almost epigrammatic style, full of pith, convince the reader that 
what he decided ought to be law, if it is not. 

" He was a man of great tact, an excellent man of business, and 
safely trusted as an adviser, or to hold and manage property. He 
was full of anecdote, both in public efforts and conversation, and 
gained many a cause by a felicitous story. His career is not exactly 
valuable as an example, for certainly no one could learn to be like 
him. If ever character was born, his was." 

In the language of his pastor, it is further to be 
said of him, — 

" Few shrunk more sensitively from the infliction of pain, and few 
were capable of being more powerfully aroused by the sight or sense 
of wrong. And if at any time the stronger impulses of feeling, 
which few suspected to be lying beneath that courteous, self-possessed 
demeanor, broke out, as they sometimes did, into the utterance of 



252 . REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

unkiud words towards any, no man was more quick to repair the 
injury ; and the very gentleness of the manner in which the ajDology 
would be rendered was sure to make it the occasion of drawing to 
him a deeper respect and a warmer friendship. In fact he was a 
person of remarkable sentiment ; and none could be an inmate of 
his family without being struck with the graceful ways in which this 
sentiment of his, as a husband, a father, a brother, and friend was 
continually showing itself. It made his home a home for the heart ; 
there he aimed to rule by love, and love alone. Severity was painful 
to him, and great must be the fault that would bring him to mani- 
fest it." 

Governor Pennington died in February, 1862, his 
death being hastened, if not produced, by a large dose 
of morphine, administered through the mistake of an 
^ apothecary. He died the death of a Cliristian, pre- 
pared by faith in Christ for the great change. Dur- 
ino; all his life he was an habitual attendant on divine 
worship, and often, as I had occasion to know, seemed 
on the point of giving his heart to God, and of mak- 
ing a formal profession of religion. But it was not 
until a few years before his death that he did this. 
The statement of his pastor, in his funeral discourse, 
gives us the most reliable account of his religious 
course, in respect to which he could speak from per- 
sonal knowledge : — 

" When the question was raised, as to the formation of the High 
Street congregation, in 1849, he was induced to withdraw from the 
First Presbyterian congregation, where he had long occupied posi- 
tion as president of the board of trustees, and to give his support to 
the infant organization. The sacrifice thus made woke in him new 
interest in religious affairs, and he became more than ever a con- 
stant attendant on divine worship. But it was not until March 7, 
1858, during the revival of that memorable winter, that he formally 
professed his faith in the Redeemer. The change then thus avowed 
was, however, far from being an abrupt one. His nature was not 
wont to turn sharp corners. He disliked sudden transitions ; and 
the process of his conversion accorded with these habits of his mind. 



WILLIAM PEOT^INGTON. 253 

In him the ' going forth ' of God's grace ' was as the morning ; ' 
first twilight, then the dawn, and when the sun rose above the 
horizon, it shone out bright and clear. So decided was his position 
as a Christian disciple, that at the election of elders, which took 
place within a year after, contrary to the usual custom, and against 
apostolic advice, and I may add against his own judgment also, the 
Church elected him to its session, and he was induced to abide by its 
decision. I think all will agree in testifying that his service in that 
sacred office has been faithfully and acceptably performed. Few of 
our number have shown so warm an interest in the welfare and edi- 
fication of the Church as himself. He loved the brethren. His 
place at the prayer-meeting was never vacant, except under the 
compulsion of circumstances. None listened to the AVord with more 
appreciative attention, or was more ready to accept it when honestly 
presented, in whatsoever style. He prized simple truth far more 
than the eloquence of words, and knew well how to distinguish sub- 
stance from glitter. It was with many an apprehension we parted 
from him as he went forth to encounter the seductions of the Capitol 
in the immaturity of his Christian experience. But when he re- 
turned to us, it was with a spirit not indeed altogether unaffected 
by the trying scenes through which he had passed, yet true to his 

profession Again he was faithful at the post of his duty ; and 

for the last few months, those who knew him intimately and held 
converse with him on religious things, obserA^ed the ripening of his 
piety. He showed evidence of special preparation for the change 
of whose near approach he seemed to have mysterious premoni- 
tions. If his faith was not so deep as that of some, if his range of 
Christian experience was not as broad as that of some, yet this we say 
of him — his piety was simple, sincere, child-like, fearless, and frank. 
He loved his Saviour, and often expressed his sense of the largeness 
of that grace which had made a place for him in the heavenly 
kingdom at so late a period in life. He loved the Scriptures, and 
read them like one searching for hid treasures. He loved the 
society of Christian people, of good men, and he felt his house 
blessed when they came to visit him. He was a man of habitual 
prayer, and found therein both solace and strength. And for those 
things we call him a true Christian, a child of God, one who has 
been washed, pardoned, sanctified, and, we trust, is now glorified 
by that grace which has been given unto us in the Gospel." 



254 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Philemon Dickerson, a brother of Mahlon, was li- 
censed as an attorney in 1813 and as a counselor in 
1817 ; in 1834 was made a sergeant at law. It may 
be mentioned that this last degree was originally of 
some importance, as only sergeants could pass a com- 
mon recovery in the supreme court, which followed 
in that respect the practice of the English court of 
common pleas. As for a time the examiners of stu- 
dents were appointed exclusively from the sergeants, 
the distinction was continued until 1839, since which 
date no sergeants have been designated. 

In the winter of 1812 Mr. Dickerson was residing 
in Philadelphia, and I became acquainted with him 
there. In a short time he took up his residence at 
Paterson, in New Jersey, married and practiced law 
there. In 1833 he was elected member of Assembly; 
and in 1836 was chosen governor by the Jackson 
party, holding the office, however, but one year, that 
party, which had now assumed the name of Demo- 
crats, being defeated in 1837. In 1839 he was placed 
by the Democrats on their ticket for Congress, and, 
as was finally settled, received a majority of the 
votes ; but owing to irregularities in some of the 
township returns, they were thrown out by two of 
the county clerks, so that the votes returned to the 
governor did not show him elected, and the certifi- 
cates were given to others. In 1841 he was ap- 
pointed, by Mr. Van Buren, judge of the district 
court, and held that office until his death, at the age 
of about seventy, in 1862. He was afflicted by a can- 
cer in his face. 

The few opinions he had occasion to deliver dur- 
ing the year he was chancellor, are reported in 
Green's Chan. Rep., and show him to have possessed 



PHILEMON DICKERSON. 255 

a discriminating mind, and a good knowledge of law 
and equity. The case of The Associate Reformed 
Church vs. The Trustees of the Theological Seminary 
at Princeton, 3 Green, 77, involved the right of the 
latter body to the possession of a valuable theolog- 
ical hbrary, and delicate questions respecting the 
rights and duties of the synods of the respective 
churches, in the formation of a union. His decision 
against the defendants was acquiesced in, without 
appeal. In the case of Hulme vs. Shreve, 3 Green, 
116, he had occasion to consider the rights of parties 
owning mill sites, and the effect of flowing back the 
water, and at the request of the parties made a per- 
sonal examination of the premises ; his opinion shows 
how fully he mastered all the difficulties of the sub- 
ject. The decree made in conformity to his views, 
was affirmed in the higher court by a very decisive 
vote. 

He had a good practice as a lawyer, and was a satis- 
factory judge as chancellor and in the United States 
court. He was distinguished for dry humor, one in- 
stance of which occurred just after the war of the re- 
bellion commenced. A zealous Republican, who was 
summoned as foreman of the grand jury, proposed 
that all the jurymen present should take the oath to 
support the Constitution of the United States. Upon 
which the judge remarked, in the most quiet, busi- 
ness-like manner, that if any persons in the court 
were so distrustful of themselves as to think the oath 
necessary, he was quite ready to administer it. No 
one responded, and the business of the court pro- 
ceeded as usual. 



256 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Daniel Haines was governor and chancellor under 
the old constitution two years, and was elected for one 
term of three years by the people. He was born in 
the city of New York, in the year 1801. His father, 
Elias Haines, was a well known and for many years a 
successful merchant of that city, and was noted for 
his benevolence and probity. He belonged to a fam- 
ily of that name, who were of the earliest settlers 
of Elizabethtown. Stephen Haines, the grandfather, 
and his sons were distinguished during the War of 
the Revolution for patriotic zeal and active service. 
They were one night surrounded in their dwelling by 
a strong force, which captured them, and took them 
as prisoners to New York, where they were impris- 
oned in the " old sugar-house," and were for a long 
time, with others, great sufferers. The mother of 
Governor Haines was a daughter of Robert Ogden, of 
Sparta, in the County of Sussex, and the sister of 
Governor Ogden. 

Daniel Haines received his preparatory education 
from the Rev. Dr. Edmund D. Barry, celebrated as a 
teacher in New York, and at the academy in Eliza- 
bethtown. He was graduated at the college of New 
Jersey in 1820, <ind was a classmate of Chief Justice 
Green, Judge Field, and Rev. Dr. James W. Alex- 
ander. He studied law with Thomas C. Ryerson, 
afterwards judge, at Newton ; was licensed as an at- 
torney in 1823, and as a counselor in 1826, and was 
called to be a sergeant at law in 1837. 

He settled as a lawyer in 1824 at Hamburg, in 
Sussex County, and has continued ever since to reside 
there. He has been twice married. His practice as a 
lawyer, although never very large, soon became quite 
respectable. The year of his commencement brought 



DANIEL HAINES. 257 

forward General Jackson,, whose cause was espoused 
by most of the leading politicians of the county, both 
Democrats and Federalists, so that for many years 
Sussex gave the largest majority for him, and for those 
that succeeded him as Democrats, of any county in 
the State. Young Haines was of federal descent, and 
took an active part in promoting the success of 
Jackson, the township of Vernon, in which he resided, 
casting all the votes that were polled in his fivor. 

In 1839, a question regarded as of importance to 
the county having arisen, he was induced to accept a 
nomination to the council of the State, and was elected 
to that position. This brought him into the political 
contest called the " broad seal war," in which he took 
an active part on the side of his political friends. The 
legislature elected in 1838 had passed a series of res- 
olutions, which they ordered to be addressed and 
forwarded, not to the speaker of the house of repre- 
sentatives, but to " The Honorable Robert M. Hunter, 
representative of Virginia." This address had been 
refused to be received by Mr. Hunter, who justly re- 
garded it as insulting to the body over which he 
presided, implying that it was not entitled to judge 
for itself in regard to its due organization. This re- 
jection of course excited the Whigs to renewed action 
in the session of 1839-40, and new resolutions were 
introduced into the lemslature, denouncino; in strono- 
terms the action of the house of representatives, as 
equivalent to declaring New Jersey out of the Union, 
and no longer entitled to a voice in the councils of 
the nation. Amzi Armstrong, of Newark, and Jacob 
W. Miller, then members of the council, were the lead- 
ing advocates of these resolutions, and Haines bore 
the brunt of the contest in opposition. The Whigs 

17 



258 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

being at that time largely in the majority, carried 
their resolutions j but the efforts of Haines and his 
friends were not lost. The testimony taken in refer- 
ence to the election which occasioned the difficulty 
established the fact that the democratic members had 
received a clear majority of the votes, and their party 
grew stronger and stronger in the State, until in 1843 
it carried a majority of the legislature. The debate 
in which Haines took so prominent a part, served 
to make known his ability, and to bring him forward 
as a leader. He served a second time in the council, 
and then declined a renomination. 

When in the fall of 1843 the Democrats obtained 
a majority of the legislature, his friends brought him 
forward as a candidate for the situation of governor, 
and he received a majority of the votes in the joint 
meeting, only three weeks after the members were 
elected, and, as I have understood, one week after 
any suggestion that such a measure was intended 
had been made to him. 

The leading measures he promoted as governor were 
the advancement of the cause of education, and the 
change of the constitution of the State. He gave his 
influence and active exertions to secure the passing 
of a law providing for calling a conventioa to frame 
a new constitution, which succeeded. After its pas- 
sage, the leading men of both political parties, not- 
withstanding the strong political excitement preva- 
lent at the time, united in recommending that the 
convention should be composed of an equal number 
of each party. This recommendation prevailed in 
every county but one, which sent all Democrats, so as 
to give a majority to that party ; but this only caused 
a sufficient number of that party to vote so independ- 



DANIEL HAINES. 259 

entlj on every question having a party bearing, that 
not only were the officers elected from both parties, 
but the constitution was so framed as, if not to steer 
clear of any party tendency, rather to lean against the 
Democrats. One of the temporary provisions adopted, 
provided for the continuance in office of " the present 
governor, chancellor, and ordinary, or surrogate gen- 
eral and treasurer, until successors elected or appointed 
under the new constitution should be. sworn or af- 
firmed into office." By virtue of this provision, Gov- 
ernor Haines continued in office until the inaut*;ura- 
tion of his successor, Charles C. Stratton, in January, 
1845. 

The cases decided by Governor Haines as chan- 
cellor, will be found 3 Green's Chan. Reports. His 
opinions were carefully prepared, and were generally 
satisfactory. 

He declined a nomination as candidate for governor 
at the first election held under the new constitution ; 
but in 1847 he was selected by the Democrats to lead 
their ticket, and was elected by a respectable ma- 
jority. In his inaugural address and his message, he 
reiterated his recommendations in favor of education 
by means of public and free schools. He stronglj^ rec- 
ommended a normal school for the education of teach- 
ers, a measure" that did not then obtain the favor of 
the legislature, but which not long afterwards was 
adopted, and has proved of great public benefit. Dur- 
ing this term of service the governor was no part of 
the judiciary of the State, and of course the person 
holding the office could not follow the profession of a 
lawyer. But when his constitutional term expired, he 
resumed the practice of law, and was occupied in it 
until November, 1852, when, having been previously 



260 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

nominated as a justice of the supreme court, and con- 
firmed by the senate, he took his seat on the bench ; 
and being reappointed, held that office fourteen years. 

Until he was governor the second time, I had but 
little acquaintance with him ; but from that time, and 
especially while we sat together on the bench, our 
friendship was warm and unbroken by the slightest 
disagreement. As a judge, although not entitled to 
rank among the most eminent for acuteness or learn- 
ing, he was highly respectable. Always anxious to 
do justice, he rarely failed to ascertain and give pre- 
ponderance to the merits of a cause ; and by his 
courteous deportment, as well as by his sound judg- 
ment, he merited and obtained the confidence and re- 
spect of suitors and their advocates. But few judges 
were ever freer from the influence of passion or preju- 
dice. For several years he presided in the Newark 
circuit, the most important and difficult perhaps of any 
in the State ; and left it greatly respected by the bar, 
who expressed their feelings by a strong testimonial 
of their regard. 

Governor Haines is one of those old Federalists, 
who, having become earnest supporters of General 
Jackson, continued afterwards to act with the demo- 
cratic party. But he has always had the indepen- 
dence to refuse his support to candidates of that party 
he considered unworthy of support ; and well would 
it be for our country if there were more to imitate 
his example in this respect. While on the bench, both 
of us abstained from any active interference in polit- 
ical arrangements, contenting ourselves with voting 
for such candidates as upon the whole we judged best 
entitled to our support, and most likely to represent 
our principles. We, of course, often counseled to- 



DANIEL HAINES. 261 

getlier, and were generally like minded. In a letter 
to me. in reference to one of the most difficult ques- 
tions we had to decide, he remarked, " When the dem- 
ocratic convention divided at Charleston, I became 
impressed with the belief that the extreme men of 
the South, nominally Democrats, were willing to co- 
alesce with the abolitionists of the North, to provoke 
a secession of the southern States, and I feared we 
should become the victims of ultra men of both par- 
ties, and be compelled to settle by force of arms what 
was clearly the subject of fair and honorable nego- 
tiations, although hopeless of success, I travelled sixty 
miles and back to cast a vote for the ' Union demo- 
cratic ticket,' for the reason, chiefly, that the election 
of Lincoln as a sectional candidate might precipitate 
war, and I wished to make my protest against it." I 
had myself given the same vote, and for the same 
reason. 

Continuing after the election of Lincoln to oppose 
every measure likely to produce a war, and earnestly 
desirous that the measures proposed by the peace con- 
ference might be so far adopted as to secure peace ; 
when Carolina and other States formally seceded, and 
Sumter was attacked, he felt too strongly moved by 
the blows thus aimed at the Union and the life of the 
nation, not to oppose them, and did what he could to 
sustain the government, although many of its meas- 
ures were such as he could not approve. He exerted 
his influence in raising troops for the Union army, 
and for that purpose attended meetings of the citi- 
zens of his county, composed largely of Democrats, 
and urged the importance of filling the ranks, calling 
attention to the admonitions of Washington and Jack- 
son, in regard to the duty of maintaining the union 



262 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of the States, and the duty incumbent on every good 
citizen to aid in repelling every effort to destroy it. 
With his entire approbation, his son-in-law and his two 
sons entered into service, one of the latter sacrificing 
his life in the conflict. 

When McClellan was nominated in opposition to 
the reelection of Lincoln, he gave him his support, giv- 
iny: to me, as amon": his reasons, " I think the meas- 
ures of the administration tend unnecessarily to pro- 
tract the war ; many of its partisans are fattening on 
the spoils, and plundering the nation, and McClellan 
has been persecuted for his political opinions." After- 
wards he voted for Seymour, although without hope 
of success, as in every respect preferable to a military 
chieftain whose recommendation was military success, 
which under the circumstances no commander of the 
most ordinary talent could have failed to achieve. 
And he has since been steadily opposed to most of 
the measures of reconstruction adopted by the Repub- 
lican part}^, as not only in violation of the Constitu- 
tion, but as threatening to perpetuate feelings of dis- 
union and hate, the evil consequences of which in the 
future may be destructive of that cordial union be- 
tween the different and diverse sections of our coun- 
try, so essential to the safe and harmonious action of 
a federal republic. 

Carefully educated as a Presbyterian, Governor 
Haines became a member of the Church in early life, 
and has been for many years a ruling elder* He 
was prominent as a member of the General Assembly 
in all the measures adopted for uniting the two 
branches of that Church, and was one of the commi^ 
tee to whom the difficult legal questions that arose 
were referred, and which they settled so satisfactorily. 



DANIEL HAINES. 203 

As a member of the Bible Society, of Sunday-school 
and. other meetings of a religious or benevolent char- 
acter, he has always been prompt to render the aid of 
his influence and his active exertions ; and he still con- 
tinues much occupied with such engagements ; contin- 
uing also to some extent his business as a lawyer. 

In 1845 he was appointed one of the commissioners 
to select a site for the State Lunatic Asylum, estab- 
lished near Trenton, and was a member of the first 
board of managers of that institution. In 1865 he 
was made a commissioner to select a site for a "Home 
for Disabled Soldiers," and subsequently one of its 
managers. In the same year the legislature provided 
for the establishment and organization of a State 
"Reform School for Juvenile Delinquents," located at 
Jamestown, and he was appointed one of the board of 
trustees, and was made and still continues to be the 
president of that body. 

By a joint resolution of the legislature in 1868, he 
was appointed one of the commissioners " to examine 
the system of the existing State Prison of this State 
and similar institutions of other States, and to report 
an improved plan for the government and discipline 
of the prison." In October, 1870, he was one of the 
commissioners appointed by Governor Randolph, to 
the National Prison Reform Congress, held at Cincin- 
nati, and by that body was appointed one of a com- 
mittee charged with the duty of organizing a national 
prison reform association, and an international con- 
gress on prison discipline and reform, to be held at 
the city of London in 1872. In the organization of 
the National Prison Reform Association, he was made 
one of the corporators, and a vice-president. For 
many years he has been one of the board of trus- 
tees of Princeton Collejjce. 



CHAPTER IX. 

JUDGES DURING AND SOON AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 

SAMUEL TUCKER. ROBERT MORRIS. DAVID BREARLY. JAMES KIN- 
SEY. ISAAC SMITH. JOHN CLEVES SYMMES. JOHN CHETWOOD. 
ELISHA BOUDINOT. 

• 

TT/'ITII the exception of the courts of which the 
governor was ex officio the judge, much difficulty 
was experienced in organizing the courts of the State, 
after the adoption of the new constitution. The gov- 
ernor was constituted the chancellor and ordinary, 
and there was no difficulty in holding that his power 
to appoint the officers, and to regulate the proceed- 
ings of the court of chancery and prerogative court, 
was the same as that of his predecessor, the royal 
governor. This power included the appointment of 
the times and places of holding the regular terms of 
the courts. During the war, and for some time after- 
wards, the business of the court of chancery was not 
important ; but as the orphans' courts of the counties 
had not been established, the disputes which arose in 
relation to wills and to the estates of deceased per- 
sons, devolved for settlement upon the governor as 
ordinary in the prerogative court, and this was by far 
his most important business as a judge. 

Richard Stockton, having declined the appointment 
of chief justice of the supreme court, the legislature 
in joint meeting, a few days afterwards, elected John 



SAMUEL TUCKER. 265 

DeHart to that office. But althoui2;h he wrote a let- 
ter accepting the appointment, for some reason which 
does not appear he declined to enter upon its duties. 
At the same time that DeHart was chosen chief jus- 
tice, namely, September 4, 1776, Samuel Tucker and 
Francis Ilopkinson were elected associate justices. 
Mr. Hopkinson, being a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, declined ; but Mr. Tucker accepted, took 
the oath of office, and in November held a term of 
the court. The last court at which the colonial jus- 
tices, Frederick Smyth, chief justice, and David Ogden 
were present, was held in May. In consequence of 
this suspension of the regular terms of this court, and 
a like interruption of the stated terms of the courts in 
most of the counties, acts of Assembly were passed 
reviving and continuing the process and proceedings 
depending, as fully and effectually as if the said courts 
had regularly met. 

Samuel Tucker was not a lawyer, but had held 
many important jDublic stations, and was a man much 
respected, and of great influence in Trenton, in the 
immediate neig^hborhood of which he resided. He 
had been sheriff of the County of Hunterdon, was a 
member of the Assembly in 1769, and was elected 
afterwards, in 1772, as a member of that body, — the 
last under the provincial government whose functions 
were put an end to by the Revolution. He was an 
active member, and president of the different provin- 
cial cono;resses, and sigrned the Constitution of 1776 
as such. He was also treasurer of the State, and as 
such had a large amount of the paper currency and 
other valuable property in his custody, which, in an 
affidavit he laid before the legislature in February, 



266 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

1777, he alleged were taken out of his possession in 
the previous December by a party of British horse- 
men, who took him prisoner and detained him until a 
protection was obtained from Colonel Rahl, who was 
killed at Trenton shortly afterwards. This transac- 
tion, the accuracy of his statement being disputed by 
Governor Livingston, occasioned him to appear before 
the leo-islature and resio-n his commission. His weak- 
ness in taking advantage of the offer of British pro- 
tection during the panic which prevailed so exten- 
sively previous to the capture of the Hessians at 
Trenton, was attributable perhaps to the fjict that his 
wife was an English lady. It is certain that he thus 
forfeited his character as a patriot, and died in 1789 
still under the cloud. 

In February, 1777, the joint meeting elected Robert 
Morris as chief justice, and Isaac Smith and John 
Cleves Symmes as associate justices of the supreme 
court, and they all entered upon the duties of these 
offices, and appear afterwards to have opened the 
court and sworn a grand jury, as was the custom 
then, at the regular terms held in April, May, Sep- 
tember, and November. Morris was a son of Robert 
Hunter Morris, chief justice from 1738 until his death 
in 1764, the particulars of which are stated by Judge 
Field in "Provincial Courts of New Jersey," page 155. 
In 1779 he resigned, but for what reason does not ap- 
pear His residence was in New Brunswick. In 1790, 
upon the death of Judge Brearly, he was appointed 
by President Washington judge of the district court 
of the United States for New Jersey, an office which 
he held until his death in 1815. During the latter 
part of the time, his health was so bad that no district 



ROBERT MORRIS. 267 

court was held. The business then required to be 
done in that court was so unimportant that the fail- 
ure of the judge to attend occasioned no special in- 
convenience. 

The following letter was addressed by Chief Justice 
Morris to Governor Livingston, which I copy from 
the Revolutionary Correspondence published by order 
of the legislature of New Jersey in 1848, because it 
shows us something of the condition of judicial affairs 
at the commencement of the Revolutionary War : — 

" Newton, June 14th, 1777. 

" Sir : Inclosed your excellency has a list of the convictions 
and the judgments thereon, at this very tedious and I would have 
said, premature court, if the council had not thought exjiedient on 
mature deliberation to have appointed it. I had the pleasure to 
find Mr. Justice Symmes here at my arrival, and confess if I had 
supposed the council would have spared him for the business, I 
would not have travelled post over the mountains, through the rain 
and late into the night, on so very short notice. 

" Judges young in office, and not appointed for their legal erudi- 
tion ; associates but reputable farmers, doctors, or shopkeepers ; young 
officers, no counsel nor clerk, for want of timely notice, which was 
not even given to the sheriff; and this in a disaffected county, both 
witnesses and criminals to be collected from all parts of the State. 
Thus circumstanced was a court of the highest expectation ever 
held in New Jersey ; a court for the trial of a number of state crim- 
inals, some for high treason, a crime so little known in New Jersey 
that pprhaps the first lawyer in it would not know how to enter 
judgment under our constitution. It would make an excellent para- 
graph in Gaine's ' Veritable Mercury ; ' no other printer could ven- 
ture to publish it. In England, where treasons and rebellions are 
from immemorial usage become familiar terms, twelve learned judges 
from the first courts in the world, the members of privy council, 
and the first gentlemen in the kingdom, would have been sent on 
such an errand, and attended by old and experienced officers, and 
the ablest counsel at the bar, witnesses prepared, criminals to try, 
and seasonable notice given. But there the law is systematically 
administrated, and the ministers of it have settled forms of practice, 



268 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

under an old constitution, well understood. And here we have a 
new modeled government, incomplete in parts, young in practice, 
and contingencies unprovided for. , 

" Seriously, sir, with due submission to the council, I should have 
thought that for a court of such consequence, the members of the 
council, and some of the bar, ought to have been joined in the 
commission and requested to attend. We have sat with great pa- 
tience, and have now closed the third week. Had it not been for 
the negligence or villainy of a rascally jailer, in suffering John 
Eddy, the only person indicted for high treason, to escape yesterday 
morning, I flatter myself we should have acquitted ourselves with 
tolerable success, and I hope have given satisfaction to the good 
people. This escape has given me much uneasiness, as I feel it 
will be undeservedly attributed to the inattention of the court. If 
the jailer was not privy to the escape, which did not appear, he is 
perhaps too severely punished. The court, in fixing his punishment, 
had a retrospective eye to past abuses of this sort, and thought an 
early example of severity would be likely to prevent them in future. 
He appears to be a young, simple fellow, unacquainted with the du- 
ties of his office, and not fully instructed by the. sheriff, who has 
been almost daily cautioned on the subject. This jailer's case is 
recommended to the mercy of your excellency and council, at such 
season as you shall judge expedient to exercise it. Mr. Attorney 
general will inform you of the particular demerits of the other 
convicts ; some of them may hereafter be entitled to partial pardons ; 
I wish I could say they were at this time. The little time the mem- 
bers of the court had for considering the commission after my ar- 
rival hurried us into a matter which, on further consideration, I 
confess I am not satisfied with ; I mean the short time between the 
teste and return of the precipe for the grand jury. In England, I 
observe, fifteen days was ordered, on mature deliberation of all the 
judges, acting under the special commission of 1746. What the 
practice has been in New Jersey we do not know, as the clerk has 
none of the former circuit papers. If we have erred it is partly 
chargeable to the council, for appointing the court so shortly after 
issuing the commission, and they are bound to get the legislature 
to cure it. Had I half an hour's time for thinking of the matter it 
should have been otherwise. 

"In your letter notifying me of this court, you obsei've that my 
not attending the court at Burlington had given uneasiness. What- 
ever private individuals might have thought, I am persuaded no 



ROBERT MORRIS. 269 

member of the legislature had the least right to expect my attend- 
ance. Two hundred miles a day is rather hard travelling ; and even 
that would not have done, unless they suppose me possessed of the 
spirit of divination. I accepted my present office to manifest my 
resolution to serve my country. I mean to do the duty of it while 
I hold it, according to my best judgment. Whenever the legisla- 
ture think they can fill it more advantageously, the tenor of my 
commission shall not disappoint them. 

"The court rose without adjournment, as it was not supposed 
they would have occasion to sit again, unless Eddy should be taken. 
If this should be the case, I hope one of the other justices will be 
able to attend ; I fear I shall not. I wish the legislature, before 
another court sits, would take under consideration the judgment in 
high treason, old indictments at the suit of the king, and some 
other difficulties in former practice, which the attorney-general will 
mention to you. I have the honor, etc., 

" Rob't Morris. 

" Governor Livingston." 

To understand some of the difficulties referred to 
in this letter, it must be remembered that at this 
time, and for many years after, grand and petit jurors 
were summoned by virtue of venires directed to the 
sheriff for that purpose. Courts of oyer and terminer 
were held by virtue of special commissions issued by 
the governor and council, in pursuance of the author- 
ity contained in the commission from the king. The 
constitution of 1776 gave no such express power, and 
doubts were entertained whether the new governor 
and council could exercise it. They did do it, how- 
ever, holding it to be justified by the act of the legis- 
lature passed soon after the meeting of the first legis- 
lature, which provided that the several courts of the 
State should be confirmed, established, and continued 
with the like powers, under the present government, 
as before the declaration of independency. Charles 
Petit, who was a lawyer, and had been the deputy 
clerk of the old council and of the supreme court, 



270 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

writes to Governor Livingston, of the date June 15, 

1777: — 

" You will receive herewith a draught of a commission of oyer 
and terminer, which I have made from one of the old forms ; it is 
a translation as literal as the change of style will admit. I send 
also, by way of cover, the draught of the late commission for Sus- 
sex, so that you may have an opportunity of comparing them. On 
further consideration (although I have had no opportunity of exam- 
ining books) I am better satisfied that the courts of oyer and ter- 
miner may be legally held under such commission, if it were only 
by virtue of the act for reviving and establishing the courts of jus- 
tice. The only doubt that remains is the appointment of assistant 
justices to those of the supreme court, as it may be said they ought 
to be elected by the council and Assembly ; if so, it might be well 
at their next meeting to elect a set of associates for each county." 

In September, 1777, an act was passed directing 
that when any person should be convicted of treason, 
the sentence therefor should be the same as in a 
case of murder (that is, to be hung, instead of quar- 
tering) ; and that all persons, who before July 2d, 
1776, had committed a crime not barred by the stat- 
ute of limitation, might be proceeded against and 
punished as if committed against the State ; and that 
all indictments found in the name of the king, should 
be prosecuted as if in the name of the State. Another 
act was passed expressly authorizing the governor 
with the advice of the council to constitute and ap- 
point by commission courts of oyer and terminer as 
before, provided that only justices of the supreme 
court, and the judges and justices of the respective 
counties, should be appointed judges of such courts. 
By virtue of this statute special commissions contin- 
ued to be issued until 1794, when an act was passed 
constituting these courts substantially as they are 
now held. 



ISAAC SMITH. — JOHN CLEVES SYMAIES. 271 

Isaac Smith held the office of associate justice of 
the supreme court four terms, twenty-eight years in 
all, longer than it has been held by any other person. 
He was a physician, but appears to have made him- 
self a pretty good lawyer. He was an ardent Whig, 
and was a colonel of militia at the commencement of 
the Revolutionary War. When his fourth term of 
office expired in 1805, party spirit ran high; and as 
he was a Federalist, William Eossell was elected by 
the joint meeting held the preceding November, in 
his place. After this. Judge Smith, who resided at 
Trenton, was appointed the first president of the 
Trenton Banking Company, and continued to hold 
that position until his death, August 20, 1807, in 
the sixty-eighth year of his age. It is recorded on 
his tombstone, that, " With integrity and honest in- 
tentions, as a physician and judge, to the best of his 
ability, he distributed health and justice to his fellow- 
men, and died in hopes of mercy through a Re- 
deemer." 

John Cleves Symmes w^as a lawyer from the State 
of New York, who, after a year's service in the north- 
ern army, and taking part in the battle of Saratoga, 
resided at Newton, in the County of Sussex. He was 
a delegate to the Provincial Congress from that county, 
and took an active part in framing the state constitu- 
tion in 1776. He was appointed one of the justices 
of the supreme court in February, 1777. In 1784 
and 1785 he was a dele(2:ate to the Continental Con- 
gress at Philadelphia, still retaining his position in the 
supreme court. 

One of his letters to Governor Livingston, detail- 
ing his proceedings in the courts of oyer and terminer 



272 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of Hunterdon and CumberLand in 1778, will be found 
in the " New Jersey Revolutionary Correspondence," 
page 135. Several persons were convicted of treason 
and sentenced to death ; but whether any of them 
were executed, is now unknown. 

He presided in 1782 at the court held in Westfield, 
Essex County, for the trial of James Morgan, arraigned 
for the murder of Rev. James Caldwell. The shooting 
of this G-entleman was one of those traoric events of 
the Revolution which excited the deepest sympathy 
of the community. He was the Presbyterian minister 
at Elizabethtown, and a zealous Whig, and was chap- 
lain of the northern army in the fall of 1776. He 
returned to the State, was incessantly engaged in his 
parochial and public duties, and was perhaps the most 
popular man with the army and the people generally 
in his neighborhood. In 1780 his wife was shot in her 
house by British soldiers. On the 24th of November, 
1781, he was shot through the heart, and immediately 
killed, at Elizabethtown Point, by Morgan, then in ser- 
vice as a militia-man, who claimed to have been on 
duty as a sentinel, and to have shot him because he 
persisted in passing him when required to stop. He 
was an Irishman and a Catholic ; and in the excitement 
which still prevailed when he was tried, about six 
weeks after the act was committed, he had but little 
chance for his life, whether guilty or not. He was 
defended by Colonel DeHart ; but after a full and 
fair trial, said by those present to have been remark- 
ably solemn, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and 
he was sentenced to be hung. This sentence was 
carried into execution on the 29th of January, after 
he had been conducted to the church, where a sermon 
was preached by Rev. Jonathan Elmer, according to a 



JOHN CLEVES SYMMES. 273 

custom then prevailing. The exact truth in regard 
to the kiUing of Mr. Caldwell was very difficult of 
ascertainment at the trial, and cannot now be known. 
Some said he was drunk, others that he was irritated 
because he had not been paid, and supposed Mr. Cald- 
well, who was an assistant commissary, was to blame. 
One witness testified that he heard him say he would 
pop Caldwell over. Many believed he was bribed to 
do it by the British or Tories, to whom Caldwell was 
very obnoxious. 

In 1788 Symmes was chosen by the Continental 
Congress one of the judges of the north-western terri- 
tory, and shortly afterwards removed to Ohio. In con- 
junction with Jonathan Dayton, Ehas Boudinot, and 
several other Jerseymen, he purchased of Congress a 
large tract of land between the two Miami rivers, 
containing nearly 250,000 acres, and comprising the 
site of the present cities of Cincinnati and Dayton. 
He established his own residence at the North Bend 
of the Ohio, and laid out a city there, to be called 
after his own name. But in consequence, it is said, 
of the commander of the United States forces having 
fallen in love with a lady who resided at the place 
shortly afterwards named Cincinnati, and removing 
the troops there, that place became the great city. 
The North Bend was afterwards well known as the 
place of residence of General William H. Harrison, 
who married a daughter of Symmes. The latter died 
in 1814, at the age of seventy-two. His son of the 
same name promulgated the theory that the earth is 
hollow, and has inhabitants in the interior. He trav- 
elled extensively, found professed believers m his doc- 
trine, and went so far as to have a petition presented 

18 



274 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

to Congress to fit out an expedition to %nter the open- 
ings at the poles. 

Da^t:d Brearly was chosen chief justice to succeed 
Morris, June 10, 1779 ; having been induced to resign 
his commission as lieutenantrcolonel in Maxwell's 
Brigade of the Jersey line, and to leave the army, 
then on its march under the command of General Sul- 
livan to subdue the Indians in the western part of 
New York. He was a lawyer, and appears at the 
breaking out of the war to have resided at Allentown, 
in Monmouth County, and was about the age of thirty- 
four when appointed chief justice. He held the place 
nearly eleven years, having resigned in November, 
1789, to accept the appointment of judge of the 
United States district court for New Jersey, an ofi&ce 
which he held until his death in 1790, at the early age 
of forty- five. 

No reports of the decisions of the supreme court 
while he presided have been pubhshed, but he had 
the reputation of a fiiithful, reliable judge, and was 
highly esteemed. In 1781 the college of New Jer- 
sey conferred on him the honorary degree of Master 
of Arts. In 1787, while still chief justice, he was ap- 
pointed by the legislature of New Jersey a delegate 
to the convention which framed the Constitution of 
the United States, and he took his seat in that body, 
participated in its deliberations, and signed the instru- 
ment when it was agreed upon. He was afterwards 
a member of the State Convention which ratified it, 
and in 1788 was a presidential elector, and aided in 
electing General Washington. In 1783 he was made 
a vice-president of the State Society of Cincinnati, 
holding that office until his death. 



JAMES KINSEY. 275 

Upon the resignation of Brearly, he was siiccecderl 
as chief JLLstice by James Kinsey, who was elected by 
the joint meeting in November, 1789, reelected in 
1796, and held the office nearly fourteen years, having 
died in 1803, at about the age of seventy years. He 
was the son of John Kinsey, who came over to New 
Jersey from England as early as 1716, and was that 
year a member of Assembly from the County of Mid- 
dlesex, and speaker of the house several years. In 
1730 and 1733 he was again speaker. About this time 
he removed to Philadelphia, where he was chosen a 
member, and for many years speaker of the Assembly 
of that State. He was an eminent lawyer, and was 
during the last seven years of his life chief justice 
of Pennsylvania. 

Proud, in a note to his " History of Pennsylvania," 
says : " John Kinsey had very much practice and suc- 
cess in the law, and was for some time attorney-gen- 
eral; his long experience and great ability in the man- 
agement of public affiiirs, his skill in the laws, and 
readiness for communicating his knowledge therein, 
often without fee or reward, and his tenderness to his 
friends, the people called Quakers, by whom he was de- 
servedly esteemed a valuable member, in their relig- 
ious society, with the exercise of many civil and social 
virtues, are said to have rendered his life very useful 
and valuable, and his death much lamented, as a great 
and universal loss to these provinces.'' He died in May, 
1750, at Burlington, West Jersey, of an apoplectic fit. 

James Kinsey married and settled in Burlington as 
a lawyer. In 1772 he was elected a member of As- 
sembly from the city of Burlington, at that time en- 
titled to two representatives in that body. He soon 
took a prominent part in the business of the legisla- 



276 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JP:RSEY. 

ture, and was considered the leader of the opposition 
to Governor Franklin. The treasurer of East Jersey, 
Stephen Skinner, a brother of Attorney-general Skin- 
ner, claimed to have been robbed on the night of 
July 21, 1768, of over six thousand pounds in coin 
and bills. Suspicions were entertained of various 
individuals, and some doubted whether there had 
been any robbery. In 1770, the Assembly took up 
the subject, and referred it to a committee, who re- 
ported that the loss should be attributed to the negli- 
gence of the treasurer, and that he should be held 
accountable for the loss ; and to this report the As- 
sembly agreed. The governor took part with Skin- 
ner, and a controversy arose on the subject, which 
was ended only when the Revolution had so far pro- 
gressed as to make other questions more engrossing. 
Kinsey was put at the head of a new committee in 
1773, to whom a message of the governor on the sub- 
ject was referred. His report took a different view of 
the subject from that advanced by the governor. A 
letter written at this time throws some light on the 
controversy, by a statement that " The nomination 
of the treasurer by the house and removable only by 
them, is the darling object, to which every other con- 
sideration would be readily sacrificed; his (Kinsey's) 
fingers itch to take up the pen against the governor, 
but without the spirit of prophecy the event is easily 
to be determined." 

The subject was resumed in 1774, when the com- 
mittee reported : " It would give us pleasure to be able 
to join your excellency in opinion that the robbery of 
the eastern treasury had been brought to light; but 
after having considered your excellency's message, 
and examined the papers laid before us, we cannot but 



JAMES KINSEY. 277 

think that this affair still remains in an obscurity which 
we must leave to time to unravel ; " and they go on 
to intimate that the subsequent course of the Assem- 
bly, in relation to the support of the government, 
would depend in some measure upon the governor's 
determination respecting Skinner's removal. This 
produced the resignation of the treasurer, and the 
legislature immediately nominated a successor, whom 
the governor, by the advice of the council, appointed. 
A suit was commenced against Skinner, but it was 
never tried ; he adhered to the royal cause, became 
a wanderer, and died in Nova Scotia. 

Mr. Kinsey was appointed one of the delegates to 
the Continental Congress, and took his seat in that 
body at Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. 
But on the 22d of November, 1775, both he and John 
DeHart (afterwards appointed chief justice, but de- 
clined acting) requested leave of the House of Assem- 
bly to resign, and the house resolved that the reasons 
given by those gentlemen appear satisfactory, and that 
their resignation therefore be accepted. On the 2d of 
December this resignation was communicated to the 
Congress. In October, 1777, the legislature jDassed a 
law, enacting that no counsel or attorney should be 
permitted to plead in any cause, or to make any mo- 
tion, or obtain a rule in any court, until he should have 
taken the oath or affirmation required of all other 
officers, that he did not hold himself bound to bear 
allegiance to the king of Great Britain, and that he 
would bear true faith and allegiance to the govern- 
ment established in this State, under the authority of 
the people. These oaths he declined to take, and 
was therefore obliged to relinquish his practice as a 
lawyer. 



278 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Notwithstanding this failure, Governor Livingston 
w;:'ote to Samuel Allinson, July 25, 1778: "He is a 
very good man, though not the best hand on deck in 
a storm." And to Kinsey himself, the governor 
wrote on the 6th of October, 1778: "As I find my- 
self writing to my old friend, I cannot help embracing 
the opportunity to express my concern at your stand- 
ing so much in your own light, as to forego your 
practice, rather than submit to a test, which all gov- 
ernments ever have, and ever will impose upon those 
who live within the bounds of their authority. Your 
voluntary consent to take the test prescribed by law, 
would soon restore you to the good opinion of your 
country (everybody allowing you, notwithstanding un- 
accountable political obliquities, to be an honest man), 
and your way to the magistracy would doubtless be 
easy and unincumbered." It is probable that his be- 
ing a member of the Society of Friends had some- 
thing to do with his scruples about the oath, as they 
were, except a few dissentients at Philadelphia, op- 
posed to the war. When he resumed his practice, I 
have not been able to learn. 

His election as chief justice took place during the 
life of Governor Livingston, who was no doubt not 
only satisfied of his fitness for the office, but of his 
substantial adherence to the cause of the country. 
Coxe's Reports begins with his decisions, and we have 
thus some means of judging as to his legal character. 
I think his printed opinions confirm, what I understood 
from Mr. Griffith and other lawyers who had been in 
practice during his time, that he was well versed in 
the doctrines of the law, and of unsuspected integrity ; 
but he was not a man of high intellect. His successor, 
Kirkpatrick, who sat on the bench with him three or 



JAMES KINSEY. — JOHN CHETWOOD. — ELISHA BOUDINOT. 279 

lour years, says of him, in reference to the law of real 
estate as understood and administered in New Jersey, 
that he had acquired his knowledge of it " especially 
from his learned predecessor. Chief Justice Kinsey, the 
accuracy of whose knowledge upon subjects of this 
kind will be disputed by none who knew him "(2 
Halst. R. 13). The opinion in the case of Den vs. 
Clark and Tilcar (Coxe R. 356) affords perhaps as 
good a specimen of his composition as any other, and 
is well worth a careful persual. 

The associates of Chief Justice Kinsey were Isaac 
Smith and John Chetwood, until 1797, when Mr. Chet- 
wood, as we are informed in a note to the case of 
Allen vs. Hickson (1 Halst. R. 409), written, proba- 
bly, by Chief Justice Kinsey, or perhaps by Mr. Grif- 
fith (for I understood that Mr. Coxe, who was Griffith's 
son-in-law, prepared his reports from materials mainly 
prepared by him, and what had been intended for a 
second volume were furnished to Mr. Halstead), "was 
compelled by continued and increasing bad health to 
resign his seat as one of the justices of this court, a 
situation which he had held for many years with dis- 
tinoruished credit to himself, and satisfaction to the 
public. Andrew Kirkpatrick was elected to supply 
the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Jus- 
tice Chetwood, and took his seat on the bench in No- 
vember term following." ^ 

In 1798, an act was passed authorizing the appoint- 
ment of an additional justice, and Elisha Boudinot 

1 Mr. Chetwood was of Quaker de- death. He resided at Elizabethtown, 

scent, and the tradition in his family is and died in 1806, aged seventy-two. 

that he resigned, principally because of William Chetwood was a son. 
his unwillingness to sentence a man to 



280 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was elected, and held the place daring one term of 
seven years. He was a descendant of a Huguenot, a 
brother of Elias Boudinot, distinguished as a member 
of Congress during and after the Revolution, and well 
known to the religious community as the first presi- 
dent of the American Bible Society. Elisha was born 
in 1742, and was called to be a sergeant-at-law in 
1792, having long before become an attorney and 
counselor. He settled in Newark, and was an eminent 
lawyer there. During his time, the supreme court 
consisted of a chief justice and three associates; but 
in 1804 the law of 1798 was repealed, so that until 
1838 there were only two associate justices. Boudi- 
not died in 1819. 



CHAPTER X. 

JUDGES I HAVE KNOWN. 
BUSHROD WASHINGTON. WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 

"OUSHROD WASHINGTON, one of the justices of 
the supreme court of the United States, was the 
presiding justice of the United States circuit court for 
the district of New Jersey, from his first appointment 
in 1798 until his death in 1829. When I became the 
attorney of the United States for the same district, 
in 1824, I was introduced to a considerable practice 
in his court, and thus became well acquainted with 
him. 

He was a favorite nephew of General Washington, 
who devised to him his estate at Mount Vernon. He 
studied law, under t"he direction of his uncle, with 
James Wilson, of Philadelphia, an eminent lawyer, 
afterwards one of the justices of the United States 
supreme court. Having completed his studies, he 
commenced business in Virginia, his native State, ac- 
quired a large practice, and had a high reputation as 
a lawyer, and in the house of delegates and conven- 
tion of that State. At the early age of thirty-six, he 
w\as nominated by John Adams, and confirmed as one 
of the justices of the supreme court; and whatever 
fault may be found with the general character and 
political action of that President, it cannot be de- 
nied that he deserved the gratitude of the people for 



282 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

raising to the bench of the highest judicial tribunal 
of the nation two such men as John Marshall and 
Bushrod Washington. 

If any tribunal ever established by man deserves 
the epithet august, it is undoubtedly that court of 
which Bushrod Washington was a worthy member. 
Unlike any other court now existing, or that ever did 
exist, it sits in final judgment, not only upon the rights 
and fortunes of individual citizens, but over the au- 
thority, proceedings, and privileges of sovereign States, 
and over the authority, proceedings, and privileges of 
the coordinate departments of that government which 
is paramount to all. The rights and the safety of each 
member of this majestic confederation ; the prosper- 
ity, the honor, and the destiny of the whole, depend 
greatly on the learning, intelligence, the integrity and 
unfettered independence of this court. In my early 
days, the party then in power, to which I belonged, but 
with which I never agreed in this matter, was accus- 
tomed to disparage this tribunal, because it lay across 
their path when they attempted to carry out favorite 
measures, interfering with the constitutional rights of 
the citizen. And now, as in times past, history repeats 
itself We find many ardent supporters of the party 
which rules the country imitating the bad example 
they formerly so justly condemned, and for the same 
reason. 

The influence of the supreme court, as the great 
balance wheel of our nicely adjusted but complex 
government, is mainly moral. It needs the cordial 
support of every intelligent citizen, and especially of 
every lawyer and jurist ; and happily, although it 
cannot claim to be infiillible, yet it has always de- 
served such support. The decisions in regard to the 



BUSHROD WASHINGTON. 283 

power of Congress to incorporate a national bank, and 
in regard to slavery, as well as in other important 
questions, may have been of doubtful correctness ; but 
they were always of a conservative character, and bad 
results have been obviated by safe political action 
within the Constitution, or by its amendment. When 
the court decides, as it so frequently and properly has, 
in regard to the action of the separate States, it en- 
counters no great dithculty, because the States have 
no efficient means of resistance, nor do I think it 
desirable they should have. But when the court 
attempts to check the action of the legislature, which 
can by its laws, if not resist, yet impede its action, 
then the importance of forbearing undue complaints 
and of faithful support becomes apparent. The ex- 
ecutive veto is of great importance, but it can seldom 
be relied upon to do more than resist encroachments 
upon its own prerogatives, and is not always pow- 
erful enough even for that. An independent tribu- 
nal, if properly respected, can be in the future, as it 
has been in the past, a most useful check upon legis- 
lation. 

" I believe, before Heaven," said John Quincy Adams, 
while President of the United States, " that the dura- 
bility of the government depends upon the court." 
And a greater titan Adams, President Washington, de- 
clared : " Impressed with a conviction that the due 
administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good 
o-overnment, I have considered the first arrano:ement 
of the judicial department as essential to the happi- 
ness of the country, and to the stability of its polit- 
ical system." And writing to notify Mr. Jay of his 
appointment as chief justice, he remarks : " I have 



284 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

full confidence that the love which you bear to our 
country, and a desire to promote the general hap- 
piness, will not suffer you to hesitate a moment to 
bring into action the talents, knowledge, and integrity 
which are so necessary to be exercised at the head of 
that department, which must be considered the key- 
stone of our political fabric." 

Judge Washington had great fitness for his high 
office. He was rather under size, and without any pre- 
tension to mere personal dignity ; but his moral and 
intellectual qualities, his learning, his integrity, his 
unwearied, patient attention, the knowledge that every 
case would be subject to the most searching and pene- 
trating investigation, made him always the object of 
profound respect. He had that temperate but inflex- 
ible firmness which resulted from confidence in himself, 
and is the courage of superior minds. His manners, 
and his language, spoken and written, were simple and 
free from anything approaching to arrogance. He had 
that great faculty so important for a judge, and so dif- 
ficult of attainment, of regarding only the essential 
merits of a cause, without being influenced by any of 
its surroundings. He knew the cause only by the 
evidence, and decided it by the law. 

I concur entirely in the opinion expressed of him 
by Judge Hopkinson, in the beautiful eulogium de- 
livered to the bar of Philadelphia, after his decease : 

" He was wise as well as learned, sagacious and searching in the 
pursuit and discovery of truth, and faithful to it beyond the touch 
of corruption or the diffidence of fear. He was cautious, consider- 
ate, and slow in forming a judgment, and steady, but not obstinate, 
in his adherence to it. No man was more willing to listen to an 
argument against his opinion, to receive it with candor, or to yield 
to it with more manliness if it convinced him of an error. He was 



BUSHROD WASHINGTON. 285 

too honest and too proud to surrender himself to the undue influence 
of any man, the menaces of any power, or the seductions of any in- 
terest ; but he was as tractable as humility to the force of truth, as 
obedient as filial duty to the voice of reason. When he gave up an 
opinion, he did it, not grudgingly, or with reluctant qualifications and 
saving explanations ; it was abandoned at once, and he rejoiced 
more than any one at his escape from it. It is only a mind con- 
scious of his strength, and governed by the highest principles of in- 
tegrity, that can make such sacrifices, not only without any feeling 
of humiliation, but with unaffected satisfaction. 

" As every safe judge must be. Judge Washington was respectful 
of the authority of adjudged cases, but equally discriminating and 
careful in applying them. He had not the weak and dangerous am- 
bition which would shape the law to its own motions and purposes, 
nor the contemptible vanity to disregard the wisdom and learning of 
others. In fact, the old black letter law had great charms for him, 
and he was well versed in it. 

" Honesty, sincerity, and good faith were the elements of his pub- 
lic, as they were of his private conduct and character. There was a 
frankness, sometimes a playfulness in his manner, which neverthe- 
less detracted nothing from the respect due to his station. J-Ie 
scorned the tricks and solemn contrivances by which inferior men 
endeavor to attract attention and seem to be wise. There was nothing 
artificial about him, but he showed his opinions, his feelings, and 
himself, as in truth they were. He came to the bench of the supreme 
court at a period when its duties were exceedingly arduous and in- 
teresting. The convulsions of Europe, which agitated this country 
also, gave birth to questions of national and constitutional law, 
which involved in their consequences the honor and peace of our 
country, and which it was the right and duty of this court to hear 
and determine. Many of these questions, arising out of unprece- 
dented circumstances in the positions and pretensions of the bellig- 
erent nations of Europe, and from our own peculiar relations with 
all of them, were new and difficult in themselves, and rendered more 
so by the dangers which threatened us on every side, and beset 
every course we might take. In such a state of things, when the 
passions of the people were agitated and inflamed, and these pas- 
sions were necessarily communicated to our popular assemblies, we 
may imagine the importance of having in oui- system of government 
one department, which, firmly based upon a rock, lifted its head 
above the storm, and controlled its fury. Independent, truly inde- 



286 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

pendent, in all times and under all circumstances, it yields neither to 
the influence of the executive, nor to the clamor of the multitude. 

but, standing upon the Constitution, it defends it against every attack ; 
and let it never be forgotten, they will stand or fall together." 

One case tried before him at Philadelphia, in 1809, 
exhibited his peculiar qualities in a very striking and 
instructive manner. It was an indictment against 
General Bright and others, for obstructing the process 
of the United States court. This case grew out of a 
contest respecting certain prize money, between the 
State of Pennsylvania as the owner of a privateer, and 
an individual of the name of Olmstead. A certain 
portion of this money had been paid to David Ritten- 
house, as treasurer of the State, and at his death re- 
mained in the hands of his daughters as executors. 
The case having been carried into the continental 
court of appeals, that court reversed the decree of the 
state admiralty court, and awarded all the money to 
Olmstead. He obtained a decree in the court of ad- 
miralty of the United States, for the payment of this 
money to him. The legislature of the State then 
passed an act requiring the executors of Rittenhouse 
to pay the money into the state treasury ; and this 
act was passed upon the ground that the court of ap- 
peals had no jurisdiction of the case, and that '.its 
decree of reversal was null and. void. This act also 
required the governor of the state to protect the per- 
sons and property of the lady executors from any 
process which might be issued out of the courts of the 
United States. 

In this state of things the case was submitted to the 
supreme court, which, after a hearing, commanded the 
district court to issue the required process to enforce its 
judgment. This was done. But by order of the gov- 



BUSHEOD WASHINGTON. 287 

ernor of the State, General Bright called out and took 
command of a body of the militia, which surrounded 
the houses of the ladies, and then opposed with force 
the efforts of the marshal to serve his process. But as 
might be supposed the ladies were not quite pleased to 
be thus made prisoners, and it was said soon contrived 
to surrender themselves to the custody of tlie marshal. 
At any rate the process was served, and the State, in- 
stead of continuing the- war, relieved the ladies by 
paying the money. For the resistance, the general 
and some other of the officers w^ere indicted and 
brought to trial. The learning, the patient hearing, 
the clear and discriminating sagacity, and the unhesi- 
tating fearlessness of the judge, won for him universal 
approbation. His charge was a fine manifestation of 
his power to impress a jury with their duty to con- 
form to the law ; and the defendants were found guilty, 
and adequately punished. 

It was a great pleasure to be concerned in a cause 
before such a judge. Always calm and self-poised, 
his address to the lawyers, as he usually called the 
members of the bar in court, was invariably kind and 
pleasant. When 1 had in one case failed to prove 
some of the essential allegations of the declaration, 
and a motion was made by the adverse counsel to non- 
suit the plaintiff, after stating very clearly his view of 
the law, he said : '^ Mr. Elmer, I shall be obliged to 
order the plaintiff to be called, unless you prefer, as is 
your right, to take the verdict of the jury, and in that 
case I shall of course direct them to return a verdict 
in accordance with our opinion of the law, and I must 
warn you that juries seldom in this court dissent from 
our opinion." This was in conformity to the correct 
practice, which, however, has been departed from in 



288 REMmiSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the courts of this State, whether wisely or not, re- 
maining to be seen. I did not think it expedient 
to trouble the jury, and therefore submitted to the 
nonsuit. 

Judge Washington was accustomed to charge the 
jury very fully and explicitly, seldom leaving it doubt- 
ful how he thought the verdict should be rendered. I 
remember that in a case which involved merely a 
question as to the running of a boundary line, he mis- 
took the facts, so that the jury, upon which there hap- 
pened to be a very competent surveyor, found directly 
contrary to his charge. He received the verdict with 
very evident surprise, but said quietly that he would 
look into the facts of the case very carefully. After 
doing so, he promptly acknowledged his error, and 
thanked the jury for their care to be right, in a matter 
of fact which belonged to them to decide. Most 
judges would have done substantially the same thing ; 
but his manner of correcting his own error was very 
simple and pleasant. 

The four volumes of Washington Circuit Court Re- 
ports contain most of the opinions delivered in the 
circuit courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey during 
the time he presided, and deserve a careful perusal. 
His style is, in my opinion, a fine model of plain, per- 
spicuous English, resembling that of Addison and 
Blackstone. These volumes were carefully made up 
in manuscript, and carried with him, before they were 
printed, to the circuits, lest, as he would sometimes 
very pleasantly remark, he might some time inadver- 
tently overrule himself, which would be worse than 
merely overruling some other judge. 

The case of Corfield vs. Coryell, reported in 4 
Wash. C. R. 371, decided in Philadelpliia, grew out of 



BUSHROD WASHINGTON. 289 

transactions in New Jersey, and has been considered 
ever since as establishing the right of a State to pro- 
hibit the inhabitants of other States from catch in 2; 
oysters in oyster beds within its Hmits. A vessel 
owned in Philadelphia was seized in the year 1820, 
while engaged in catching oysters in Maurice River 
Cove, in pursuance of the act originally passed as 
early as 1798, now the 7th section of the act for 
the preservation of clams and oysters, revised in 
1846. 

Several of the persons engaged in making this seiz- 
ure were sued in Philadelphia by the owners of the 
vessel. One case was tried before Jud«:e Ino-ersoU in 
the district court of the city, and under his direction 
the jury rendered a verdict for the defendant. The 
case against Coryell was removed into the circuit 
court of the United States, Charles and Joseph R. 
Tngersoll being counsel for the plaintiff, and Messrs. 
Condy, Newcomb, and M'llvaine for the defendant, 
who was a citizen of New Jersey. The great point 
insisted on for the plaintiff was, that the act of the 
legislature of New Jersey was in violation of that 
clause of the Constitution of the United States, which 
provides that '" the citizens of each State shall be en- 
titled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in 
the several States." The judge held that the privi- 
leges and immunities protected by this clause were 
only those which are in their nature fundamental, 
which belono; of riii:ht to the citizens of all free g;ov- 
ernments, and which have been at all times enjoyed 
by the citizens of the several States which compose 
this Union, from the period of becoming free, inde- 
pendent and sovereign, and did not extend to the 
privilege of interfering with the rights of the citizens 

19 



290 REmNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of a State to have the exclusive privilege of catching 
fish and oysters within its waters. The expense of 
this litigation was defrayed by the State. I was 
counsel in New Jersey for the persons engaged in the 
seizure, and in fact participated in making it. 

I have in ray possession, however, one elaborate 
opinion, the last I believe that he prepared, just be- 
fore his death in 1829, which was not printed. The 
case was argued before him and Judge Rossell, at 
Trenton, about a month before he died, by George 
Wood for the defendant, and by myself for the plain- 
tiff The case had been removed from the state court 
by the defendant, a citizen of Pennsylvania, for the 
express purpose of obtaining a decision, that where a 
bond had been assigned and the payment guaranteed 
by the assignor, if the assignee was directed to pro- 
ceed agrainst" the obligjor, his omission to do so would 
be a sufficient defense to an action upon the guaran- 
tee, which in this Qase was under seal. The judge, 
however, adhered to the principle established by the 
supreme court of this State, in the case of Stout vs. 
Stevenson (1 South. R. 178), namely, that a general 
guarantee or warranty of payment by the assignor of 
a bond is absolute and coextensive with the instru- 
ment assigned, so that the warrantor becomes a surety 
for the payment of the money at the day, if it is 
assigned before the day of payment, and on demand, 
if it is assigned afterwards. 

A circumstance occurred in this case which amused 
and gratified me very much, and very naturally, con- 
sidering who the counsel was to whom I was opposed. 
There were thirteen pleas, to most of which there 
were demurrers. The assignment and covenant of 
warranty, upon which the action was founded, had 



BUSHROD WASHINGTON. 291 

been made after the penal bond assigned had become 
due. One of the pleas set up an accord and satisfac- 
tion, not true in fact, but of course admitted to be 
true by the demurrer. After the demurrer was put in, 
but just before the argument, I had happened to see 
the case of Strang vs. Holmes (7 Cow. R. 224), in which 
the court had held, I thought for good reasons, that 
since the statute which provides that, on bringing the 
principal, interest, and costs into court at any time 
pending an action upon a bond with a penalty, it shall 
be deemed a full discharge of the bond (copied sub- 
stantially in New York and New Jersey from 4 and 5 
Anne, ch. 16. See Nix. Dig. Obligation, sec. 9), it was 
unimportant whether an accord and satisfaction took 
place before or after the bond became due. Knowing 
that Wood was no case hunter, and depended rather 
upon his knowledge of the general principles of law, 
and his wonderful ability in apphdng them, I re- 
marked to him as we came up the stairs to the court- 
room : " Wood, you ought to beat me on that accord 
and satisfaction plea, but I don't think you will ; you 
don't know all the sharp points of the law." From 
his reply I saw at once that my supposition that he 
had not seen the case in Cowen, it having been re- 
cently published, was correct ; and so it proved. 
Upon the argument I relied on the old authorities, 
which held the maxim solviter eo ligamine quo ligature 
to which he had no satisfactory answer. 

When the judge's opinion was received, it appeared 
that he had overruled the plea as contrary to the 
maxim cited, and he commenced by remarking : " It 
is believed that the industry of the counsel who ar- 
gued thiii cause has brought to the view of the court 



292 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

all the cases which have a bearing on the question." 
I had the laugh against Wood, but did not feel quite 
satisfied that I had done right in withholding from 
the court my knowledge of a respectable authority 
precisely in point, although against me. Afterwards 
I submitted this doubt to Chief Justice Ewing, who 
replied, very promptly, that it was no part of my 
duty as an advocate to find authority for my oppo- 
nent. I cannot help thinking, however, notwithstand- 
ing this high authority, that it would have been 
better, although the question involved was purely 
technical, and did not touch the merits of the cause, 
to have apprised the court of the decision, and an- 
swered it if I thought it susceptible of an answer. 

In private intercourse, the judge was a most agree- 
able companion, sometimes telling a good story with 
much effect. One of his stories, which he delighted 
to tell, with much half-suppressed merriment, as it 
referred to a great man, and I believe has never ap- 
peared in print, it may not be amiss to repeat. Chief 
Justice Marshall was accustomed, he said, to relate of 
himself, that once on his way to hold the circuit court 
at Raleigh, his horse and gig became so disabled that 
he was obliged to hire a strange horse and ride him. 
This horse turned out to be a racer, and when he 
came to a stretch in the road not far from the town, 
where he had been accustomed to run, he set off at 
full speed, and could not be controlled by his rider, 
who was encumbered by his cloak ; and 

" So stooping down, as needs he must 
Who cannot sit upright, 
He grasped the mane with both his hands, 
And eke with all his mi^ht. 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 293 

" The wind did blow, the cloak did fly, 
Like streamers long and gay, 
Till loop and button failing both, 
At last it flew away." 

And thus the grave chief justice made his entrance 
into the town where he was to preside in court, much 
to the surprise as well as amusement of the specta- 
tors. 

He never brought with him to Trenton his family 
coach and servants, but came in a hired vehicle, with 
hired servants, except a female servant of Mrs. Wash- 
ington, who was in the habit of accompanying him, 
althousjh a confirmed invalid. When not eno;ao;ed in 
court, he devoted himself to her; and I am happy to 
be able to say that I believe he was a sincere Chris- 
tian. I know that he had the habit of regularly read- 
ing prayers in his private room. 

If I was asked, Who of all the judges you have 
known do you consider to have been the best fitted 
for that high office, taking into the account integrity 
of character, learning, deportment, balance of mind, 
natural temper and disposition, and ability to ascer- 
tain and regard the true merits of a cause, as deter- 
mined by the law that he was called to admiuister, I 
should say Bushrod Washington. And next to him 
I should place Charles Ewing. This is my individual 
judgment; and I have formed it without forgetting 
that it has been my happy lot to sit on the bench as 
the associate of judges who have adorned their sta- 
tions, and who have always treated me with the kind- 
ness and respect due to an elder brother. 

William Griffith was a judge of one of the circuit 
courts of the United States for a short time, at too 



294 REJIINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

early a date for me to have any personal knowledge 
of him in that capacity. I became acquainted with 
him in the year 1820, when he was a prominent 
member of the house of Assembly, taking an active 
part in the revision of the laws of the State made in 
that year. In 1823 he was again a member of that 
house, in which I served with him. 

Mr. Griffith was the son of Dr. John Griffith, who 
lived at Boundbrook, in Somerset County, and was 
born in the year 1766. He studied law in the office 
of Elisha Boudinot, at Newark, and in conjunction 
with Josiah Ogden Hoffinan, afterwards a distin- 
guished lawyer in New York, Gabriel H. Ford, Alex- 
ander C. McWhorter, and Richard Stockton, who were 
law students in the same town, founded the " Insti- 
tutio Legalis," a sort of moot court, which was kept 
up for many years, and which helped to prepare them, 
and others who succeeded them, for those forensic 
encounters in which they became famous. What the 
preparatory training of Griffith was, I have not been 
able to ascertain ; but it is certain that he became a 
learned lawyer, and a very able advocate. He was 
licensed as an attorney in 1788, and in due time as a 
counselor, and in 1798 was called to be a sergeant. 
He resided and married at Burlington, when he went 
there the county town, and for many previous years 
the capital of West Jersey. It remained a favorite 
residence of lawyers in good practice during the first 
quarter of the present century, but has since been 
nearly abandoned by the profession. 

The Society of Friends were perhaps the most in- 
fluential inhabitants of Burlington at this time, and as 
is well known, were much opposed to slave-holding. 
They were the main supporters of the New Jersey 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 296 

Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery; but 
Mr. Griffith as well as many other citizens were also 
members and active promoters of the cause. It ap- 
pears by a memoir of '• Quamino Buccau, a pious 
Methodist," published by William J. Allinson, upon 
his death in 1851, that Quamino and his wife were 
the slaves of Mr. Griffith's father, and that he as the 
executor refused to allow them to be sold, but took 
them into his own service, and in 1806 had them 
formally manumitted. 

Mr. Griffith soon acquired a large practice, and a 
deservedly high reputation as an advocate. I always 
heard him spoken of as indefatigable in his industry, 
and untiring in his devotion to his clients, sparing no 
pains to obtain success. He made himself thoroughly 
master of the land titles of New Jersey, and of the 
intricacies of the common law governing real estate. 
I had but little personal knowledge of his forensic 
efforts ; but I have heard it stated that his addresses 
to juries were sometimes very powerful, and that upon 
one occasion he so wrought upon their sympathies as 
to bring them to tears by the simple repetition of the 
phrase, " Up to his knees in water ; up to his knees 
in water." 

He was one of the few lawyers of the State, who 
wrote and published for the benefit of the profession. 
In 1796, he published a treatise on the jurisdiction 
and proceedings of justices of the peace, with an ap- 
pendix, containing advice to executors and adminis- 
trators, the law of landlord and tenant, and other 
matters. He states in the preface to this work, that 
he had held the office of surrogate for some years, 
and had thus experience of the information required. 
This was a valuable book, of which three or four edi- 



296 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

tlons were published ; and being the production of an 
able lawyer, may on many questions be still con- 
sulted with advantage. In 1799, he published a se- 
ries of essays, fifty-three in all, over the signature of 
"Eumenes," exposing the defects of the constitution 
of the State hastily adopted in 1776, and bearing on its 
face the evidence that it was expected by its framers 
to be temporar}^, and urging the election of a conven- 
tion to revise it. The popular feeling, however, was 
decidedly opposed to any change, so that the propo- 
sition to call a convention was voted down in the 
legislature. Indeed the fact that a change was mainly 
urged by lawyer, seems to have been thought an all 
sufficient reason, with the popular party at that time, 
and for years afterward, to resist every attempt to 
remedy its defects. 

At the close of the administration of John Adams, 
and after the election of Mr. Jefferson, an act of Con- 
gress was passed, very proper in itself, but hastened 
as a party measure and by a party vote, establishing 
six new circuit courts, with each a chief justice and 
two associate justices. Among the last acts of the 
outgoing President, was the nomination of these 
judges and their confirmation, at midnight, or as was 
said, after that hour, so that they were called mid- 
night judges, all of the one party. For the third 
circuit, composed of the States of New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, and Delaware, the judges selected were Wil- 
liam Tilghman, of Pennsylvania, chief justice, after- 
wards for many years the distinguished chief justice 
of the supreme court of that State (appointed by 
Governor McKean, himself a Democrat); William Grif- 
fith, of New Jersey; and Richard Bassett, of Delaware, 
These were all capable men; but party feelings were 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 297 

too highly excited to expect them to remain, and the 
result was, that the next year the law establishing 
these courts was repealed. It was strongly insisted, 
and not without reason, that this sunniiary mode of 
displacing judges, appointed arjd commissioned as re- 
quired by the Constitution to hold their offices during 
good behavior, was in the face of the letter and the 
spirit of the Constitution. Judge Bassett published 
in his own name a vigorous protest, drafted as I 
learned from himself by Mr. Griffith, which expressed 
the opinions of all the judges, although only one 
signed it. But it proved of no avail ; no attempt 
was afterwards made to resuscitate the courts, or to 
compensate the judges. It happened then, as it has 
since, that the Constitution forms but a feeble bar- 
rier against the will of a large majority of the people, 
when disposed to carry out measures supposed to be 
for the public good. 

The court held but two terms, in May and October, 
1801. The cases decided are contained in a small 
volume, entitled "Reports of Cases adjudged in the 
Circuit Court of the United States for the Third Cir- 
cuit," by John B. Wallace. The opinions, delivered 
principally by the chief justice and Mr. Griffith, ap- 
pear to have been carefully prepared, but none of 
them are important now. 

Mr. Griffith was but a young man when thus com- 
pelled to resume his business as an advocate ; but he 
does not appear to have taken to it with any zealous 
energy. He soon engaged in large speculation in the 
sale of lands ; and upon the breaking out of the war 
with Great Britain, in 1812, was induced to enter into 
the business of manufacturing woollen and cotton 
goods, of which he was entirely ignorant. The result 



298 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

was the total wreck of all his property, and an incum- 
brance of debts, from which he was never able to free 
himself His own experience as a debtor led him, 
when a member of the legislature, to prepare and to 
succeed in having enacted into a law the act passed 
February 23, 1820, entitled " An act to secure to 
creditors an equal and just division of the estates of 
debtors, who convey to assignees for the benefit of 
creditors." It became a law at a period of great pe- 
cuniary pressure, growing out of a return from the 
inflated currency prevailing during the war, to a cur- 
rency equal to gold and silver ; and put an end to the 
then very conmion and justly complained of practice 
of making assignments, which gave some creditors a 
preference over others equally meritorious. When I 
first knew him he was a broken down man ; but as a 
member of the legislature, ex.ercised a very powerful 
influence, most commonly, however, rather in a covert 
and indirect, than by an open advocacy of his favor- 
ite measures. This course was no doubt in part pro- 
duced by his being so long engaged in the earnest 
and unsuccessful efforts of his party to obtain the 
ascendency they had lost. He was among those Fed- 
eralists who preferred Jackson to John Qaincy Adams, 
but did not live to see him President. 

About the year 1820 he engaged in preparing a 
work, of which volumes three and four were subse- 
quently published under the title of "Annual Regis- 
ter of the United States," and which contained a very 
reliable account of the officers, laws, and regulations 
of each of the then twenty-four States. It was in- 
tended to continue this work by annual corrections, 
but he did not live to complete his plan. The laws 
and regulations of New Jersey will be found in the 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH. 299 

fourth volume. I have always understood that the 
answers to the queries which form the text of this 
work were furnished by General Wall ; but the notes, 
some of which are quite elaborate, were written by 
Mr. Griffith himself, and as aids for understanding the 
history of our state laws they are still valuable. As 
a general introduction to this work, he commenced 
" Historical Notes of the American Colonies and Rev- 
olutions, from 1754 to 1775," which was meant to aid 
in forming a history by the means of annals and of 
documents at large, of the government of the colonies 
to the peace in 1783. It was partly printed, but left 
in an unfinished state. Some copies were sold by 
his executors after his decease ; but it is very little 
known. From a cursory perusal, I should say it is a 
valuable addition to the constitutional and legal his- 
tory of the country. Among other suggestions in 
regard to the nature of the government of the United 
Colonies during the Revolution, I was much im- 
pressed by the remark, that the Continental Congress, 
although it sometimes adjourned, and its members 
• were changed from time to time, was never suspended 
or dissolved, until it gave way to the Constitution in 
1789, and that the articles of the confederation oper- 
ated rather to restrict than to confirm or enlarge its 
power. 

Upon the death of Elias B. Caldwell, early in 1826, 
Mr. Griffith was appointed clerk of the supreme court 
of the United States, expecting afterwards to reside 
at Washington, to which place his son-in-law, Richard 
S. Coxe, Esq., had removed ; but he lived to fulfill the 
duties of that place but a short time, having died on 
the seventh of June of that year, a few months after 



300 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

he had attained the age of sixty years. Coxe's Re- 
ports, of which only one volume was published, and 
which contains the earliest decisions of the supreme 
court of this State that were published, I have always 
understood were mainly derived from notes of the 
cases preserved by Mr. Grifi&th. 



CHAPTER XI. 

JUDGES I HAVE KNOWN. 

ANDREW KIRKPATRICK. WILLIAM ROSSELL. GABRIEL H. FORD. 
GEORGE K. DRAKE. THOMAS C. RYERSON. 

A NDREW KIRKPATRICK was chief justice of 
"^ the supreme court when I was examined for 
license as attorney at law, in May, 1815. His asso- 
ciates were William Rossell and Mahlon Dickerson. 
Examinations were held at that time in the even- 
ing, at the hotel wdiere one or more of the judges 
had their chambers, and were commonly followed by 
an entertainment furnished by the licentiates. The 
examiners were required to be of the degree of ser- 
geants, and only members of the bar of the degree 
for w^hich the examination took place w^ere allowed 
to be present, as is still the rule. The practice of 
holding the examination at a tavern, which exposed 
the young men not only to a needless expense, but 
to a dangerous temptation, has been happily abol- 
ished ; it now takes place, as is well known, during 
the regular sitting of the court. 

At May term, 1818, when I was first admitted as a 
counselor, and thus permitted to appear before the 
court as an advocate, I was present at a scene the 
most extraordinary I ever witnessed in a court of • 
justice. It occurred in the case of the State vs. Trum- 
bull, reported in 1 Southard R. 139. It was an epi- 
sode in the famous case of Ogden vs. Gibbons, referred 



802 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

to in my reminiscence of Colonel Ogden. Trumbull 
was son-in-law of Gibbons, and commenced an action 
against him in New York, for an atrocious libel upon 
his own daughter, contained in a pamphlet he had 
caused to be printed, as was understood for the pur- 
pose of coercing her mother (an exemplary woman, 
who had been obliged to separate from him) and 
family to act in accordance with his wishes ; and it 
happened that this case was expected to come on for 
trial at New York at the same time the case of Ogden 
vs. Gibbons was noticed for trial at Newark. Gibbons 
caused a subpoena to be issued for Trumbull as a wit- 
ness ; but he failed to appear when the case was 
called, and for that alleged reason Gibbons had the 
trial postponed. 

The failure of Trumbull to appear was made the 
ground of an application to attach him for a con- 
tempt. Mr. Van Arsdale, as the counsel of Gibbons, 
moved for the rule, just before the adjournment for 
dinner, and Mr. Gibbons appeared in person to sup- 
port the motion. Upon the opening of the court in 
the afternoon, Richard Stockton, on behalf of Trum- 
bull, spoke in opposition to the motion. Instead of 
confining himself to the bare merits of the question — 
for besides the excuse for absence, which of itself 
would have been a sufficient answer to the applica- 
tion for the extraordinary proceeding of an attach- 
ment against a defaulting witness, which the court 
said had not been granted for twenty years, and 
which in the experience of more than fifty years I 
have never known to be asked for, it was not shown 
that the writ had been served within the jurisdiction 
of the court — he indulged in a most excoriating at- 
tack upon the character and motives of Gibbons, all 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK. 803 

of which was richly deserved, but was very unwise 
on that occasion. The individual attacked was 
wholly regardless of public opinion, and in fact was 
much pleased to be afforded a desired opportunity 
of indulirino; the sarcasm and wit of which it soon 
appeared he was as great a master as his opponent. 

As soon as Mr. Stockton had concluded, Mr. Gib- 
bons, who was then a very large man, advanced in 
years, and enfeebled by debauchery, half rising from 
the large arm-chair on which he sat, begged per- 
mission to reply, and to be allowed to sit down. 
Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, with Judges Rossell and 
Southard, composed the court, and accorded the 
desired permission. Such another torrent of vitu- 
peration and sarcastic retort, mingled with flashes of 
real wit, I had never heard. Soon, not only the mem- 
bers of the bar present, although most of them ven- 
erated Mr. Stockton, sympathized with his client, and 
detested Gibbons and his proceedings, indulged in 
laughter at sallies of wit which were irresistible, in 
which the court soon joined, and at length the court- 
room resounded with shouts of laughter; and I well 
recollect that Colonel Joseph W. Scott, then full of life 
and vivacity, now the oldest member of the bar, the 
only survivor besides myself of those present, ran 
out behind the high circular rows of seats, then ar- 
ranged for the jurors, witnesses, and spectators, the 
back of which was higher than his head, so as to 
conceal him from the view of the court, clapped his 
hands and danced about with unrestrained glee.^ 

When the argument, if argument it could be called, 
was closed, we were all curious to hear how the court 
would treat the case. We were not disappointed in 

1 Since this was written Colonel Scott has died at the great age of ninety-three. 



304 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the result. After a short consultation; the chief 

justice resumed that dignity wliich was so natural 

to him, and with his clear, distinct, melodious voice, 

and well chosen diction, commenced by saying that 

probably some surprise might have been excited 

that the court did not interfere and suppress what 

was certainly a rather unseemly exhibition ; but the 

court must confess that they felt some curiosity, in 

which it was presumed the bar participated, to know 

how a counselor of great reputed eminence from a 

foreign court was accustomed to manage his cases, 

and by what means he had acquired his reputation 

as an advocate. He then went on to deny the motion, 

for the reasons stated in the report by Mr. Southard. 

Kirkpatrick was the grandson of Alexander Kirk- 

patrick, a Scotch Presbyterian who migrated first to 

Belfast in Ireland, and after a few years' residence 

there, sailed for America with his family in 1736. He 

settled in Somerset County, about two miles west of 

Baskingridge, and died in 1758. His second son 

was named David, who, soon after the death of his 

father, purchased the homestead of his brother, which, 

according to the law of that day, had descended to 

the eldest son. David Kirkpatrick, as described in 

the memoir prepared by James Grant .Wilson, and 

printed for the chief justice's daughter, was a rigid 

Presbyterian of the John Knox school, plain and 

simple in his habits, of strict integrity and sterling 

common sense, of great energy and self-reliance. He 

lived to attain his ninety-first year; educated, with 

a view to his entering the ministry, one son at the 

College of New Jersey ; knew of at least six grandsons 

who were liberally educated ; and at his death, in 

1814, left a numerous posterity to bless his memory 



ANDREW KIRKPATRICK. 305 

Although he lived two miles from the church at 
Baskingridge, he preferred always to walk, while the 
family rode ; and when a member of the legislature, 
althougli he would commence the journey on horse- 
back, he soon dismounted, and leading his horse, 
walked the remainder of the way to Trenton. Both 
as to the great concerns of eternity, and the things 
of time, he seems to have acted in the spirit of the 
short and comprehensive motto of the Kirkpatricks, 
so well adapted to every situation and condition of 
life, •' / mak sicker,'' I make sure. He was buried in 
a coffin made from the wood of a walnut-tree, planted 
by him in boyhood, and which he caused to be cut 
down a few years before his death, and kept for that 
purjDose. His wife was Mary M'Ewan, a native of 
Argyleshire, who with her family crossed the At- 
lantic in the ship in Avhich the Kirkpatricks took 
passage. She died 1795. 

Andrew, the third son of David, was born in Som- 
erset County, February 17, 1756, and spent his boy- 
hood there. He received the best education the 
times afforded, and graduated at Princeton College 
in 1775, during the presidency of Dr. Witherspoon. 
He was accustomed to walk to and fro between his 
father's residence and Princeton, a distance of not 
less than thirty miles, carrying his homespun and 
home-made clothing in a small knapsack. His father 
had educated him with a special view to the ministry 
in the Presbyterian Church, and after his graduation 
he commenced a course of theological studies with 
the Rev. Mr. Kennedy, a celebrated Scotch divine 
settled at Baskingridge. A few months' study sat- 
isfied him that he ought not to enter the ministry, 
and he determined to study the law. To do this he 

20 



306 REsnxiscENCES OF ^^:w jeesey. 

was obliged to relinquish any pecuniary support from 
his father, and to rely upon his own exertions. His 
mother presented him with all her little hoard of 
ready money, consisting of a few pieces of gold, as 
she saw him, with many tears, her handsome son 
and the pride of her heart, depart to carve out un- 
aided his own career in the world. 

Now in his twenty-first year, he resorted for a sup- 
port and to procure resources for his future studies 
as a lawyer, to the business of teaching. He first be- 
came a tutor in the Taliaferro family of Virginia, in 
which Mr. Southard afterwards filled the same place ; 
subsequently at Esopus, Ulster Coimt}^ New York ; 
and then obtained the position of classical instructor 
at Rutgers (then Queen's) College grammar school. 
While thus engaged in teaching, he pursued with 
diligence in his leisure hours the study of the law. 
Soon he entered the office of William Paterson, then 
an eminent counselor, afterwards governor, as a 
regular student, and was licensed as an attorney in 
1785, when he had attained the age of twenty-nine. 
He then took up his residence in Morristown, and 
succeeded in obtaining a respectable practice. Hav- 
ing the misfortune to lose his small library by fire 
in 1787, he returned to New Brunswick, where he 
continued to reside during the remainder of his life. 
His practice was soon considerable, — a result which 
has been always attributed to his untiring industry 
and to his* attention to his favorite maxim, that 
"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing 
well." That he was naturally energetic, and that he 
was capable of great exertion, I do not doubt ; his 
acquirements as a profound lawyer attest that, and 
that the natural powers of his mind were of the 



ANDREW KIEKPATRICK. 307 

highest order; but when I knew him he was not an 
industrious student, and did not claim to be. 

In the 3'ear 1792 he married Miss Jane Bayard, 
the beautiful dauo-hter of Colonel John Bavard, of rev- 
olutionary memory, a distinguished citizen of Penn- 
sylvania, who removed a few years before to New 
Brunswick. Andrew Kirkpatrick and Jane Bayard 
were at the time of their marriage called the hand- 
somest couple in New Brunswick, which I can readily 
believe from my recollection of them, after they had 
long passed the middle age of life. 

In 1797 he was elected one of the members of 
Assembly from the County of Middlesex ; and at the 
adjourned session in November of that year was ap- 
pointed by the joint meeting one of the justices of 
the supreme court, to fill the vacancy occasioned by 
the resignation of Mr. Justice Chetwood. Upon the 
death of Chief Justice Kinsey, in 1803, he was elected 
by a democratic joint meeting chief justice, and 
having been twice afterwards reelected, he sat as a 
judge of the supreme court twenty-seven years, a 
longer term than any other judge except Isaac 
Smith. He was at the bar about twelve years, but 
spent most of his professional life on the bench. In 
1820 he was elected a member of the legislative 
council, the constitution then in force admittinsf such 
a union of offices. He did not take a very active 
part in legislation. But little indeed was done. The 
legislature met October 24, and adjourned Novem- 
ber 21, sine die. All the laws enacted for that year, 
public and private, are contained in thirty printed 
pages, a striking contrast to the fourteen hundred 
pages of modern yearly statutes, most of which are 
worse than useless. 



308 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

When I first became acquainted with him, he had 
attained the full maturity of his powers, and was 
certainly the most imposing judge I have ever seen. 
He was a very handsome man, with a white head 
of hair, still wearing a cue, but not requiring the 
powder with which, in accordance with the fashion, 
he had been accustomed to whiten it at an earlier 
day. He had a very fair complexion, and a remark- 
ably fine voice. He spoke and wrote correct and idi- 
omatic English ; was a learned, and in the law of 
real estate, a profoundly learned lawyer ; a complete 
master of the abstruse learning of Coke, and the 
black letter reporters, but not well versed in modern 
innovations, which he regarded as blemishes and not 
as improvements, and did not care to study. His 
opinions, as published in Pennington and Halsted's 
Reports, upon questions relating to the law of real 
estate, deserve the most careful study of every lawyer 
aspiring to understand this most difficult branch of 
the law. They will be found to exhibit a fullness 
and accuracy of knowledge, a clearness of compre- 
hension, and a justness of reasoning, which secured 
him the confidence of the profession, and entitle 
him to rank among the most eminent of American 
jurists. His opinion in the case of Johnson vs. Morris 
(2 Halsted R. 6) may be referred to as showing his 
complete mastery of the questions discussed, and a 
good specimen of his easy and perspicuous style. It 
may be said, too, that his decisions, although of 
course often questioned, were generally correct, and 
have been commonly sustained. The most import- 
ant case decided by him was Arnold vs. Mundy (1 
Halsted R. 1), and his charge to the jur}', and 
mature opinion delivered from the bench, are fine 



ANDREW KIEKPATRICK. 309 

specimens of his judicial style, although it is to be 
regretted, I think, that he adhered closely to the 
common law of England, and did not sufficiently con- 
sider the altered circumstances and habits of a newly 
settled country. 

If I make a truthful statement of the character- 
istics of Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, I must acknowl- 
edge, although he had some very high qualifications 
for his office, he had also some very grave defects. 
As before suggested, he did not keep pace with the 
changes of the law, in his time very great, especially 
in cases involving the law of personal property and 
negotiable instruments. He was the reputed author, 
and if not the author, he certainly approved and 
enforced the act of Assembly passed in 1779, and 
reenacted in 1801, which forbade the reading in our 
courts of any adjudication, decision, digest, or book, 
made in Great Britain after the year 1776. It was 
repealed in 1818; but even after that, he frequently 
exhibited impatience when a modern English treatise 
was cited ; and I have heard him say that if a man 
had a cause of sufficient importance and desired to 
gain it, all he need do was to send to England and 
have a treatise written, taking his desired view of the 
law applicable to the case, and the American courts 
would be pretty sure to follow it. 

The members of the bar, and especially the younger 
ones, complained that he often foiled to listen pa- 
tiently to their arguments, and sometimes checked 
them with " caustic severity." I remember that when 
about to commence an argument before the court 
myself, one of them (William Chetwood, of Elizabeth- 
town, I think it was) whispered to me, "■ If the old 
chief snubs you, point your finger over your shoulder, 



310 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and see if he won't take the hint." The significance 
of this remark will be understood when I state that 
I happened at the time (1823) to be speaker of the 
House of Assembly, which then was in session in the 
room back of me, and that his term of office was 
about to expire. In point of fact, the next year, so 
strong was the opposition to his reappointment, that 
another was selected in his place. I had no part in 
this movemjent, and regretted it, although his suc- 
cessor was a man eminently fitted for the position. 
I had no occasion to complain of my treatment at 
the time referred to, nor do I recollect but one oc- 
casion when he gave me any ground of complaint, 
and then I probably deserved the rebuke, if so it 
might be called. Once when he thought I had said 
all the case required, or was weary, he took out his 
watch, and looking at it very earnestly, turned the 
face towards me so significantly that I soon took the 
hint. 

Apropos of long arguments, a circumstance oc- 
curred about this time which occasioned no little mer- 
riment. Charles Kinsey, a son of Chief Justice Kinsey, 
then a good lawyer, in full practice, but apt to be 
rather prosy, was associated with Colonel Warren 
Scott. The latter having made his argument left the 
court while Mr. Kinsey was speaking. It happened, 
that at the next term, when he entered the court- 
room, Mr. Kinsey was again on his feet. Scott going 
near, lifted up his hands in mock astonishment, and 
exclaimed, in a whisper, loud enough to be heard and 
enjoyed by court and bar, " What, Charley, at it yet?" 

When the legislature met in 1824, it soon ap- 
peared that the chief could not be reelected. It 
was currently said that one rising member of the bar 



WILLIAM ROSSELL. 311 

was elected a member of the Assembly with the 
avowed object of preventing it. Party politics had 
very much subsided, and had it been otherwise, he 
had no hold on either of the old parties, and although 
he received a respectable vote in the joint meeting, 
he had no personal friends there. He spent the re- 
mainder of his days in the bosom of his family at New 
Brunswick, without employment, except it might be 
to give an occasional opinion as counsel, when spe- 
cially consulted. From 1809 until his death he was 
one of the trustees of Princeton College, and seldom 
failed to attend the meetings of the board. He died 
in 1831. 

During the twenty-one years that Kirkpatrick was 
chief justice, there were two associate justices, and 
these at different periods were, William S. Penning- 
ton, William Rossell, Mahlon Dickerson, Samuel L. 
Southard, and Gabriel H. Ford, all of whom became 
governors of the State, except Rossell and Ford, and 
have been remembered in that connection. Some of 
these were men of considerable intellio-ence and learn- 
ing ; but it may be safely asserted that the chief 
justice was head and shoulders above them all ex- 
cept Southard. 

William Rossell was an honest, industrious judge, 
of excellent character and good judgment, who was 
elected by the Republicans, as he once said to me 
himself, because they had no good lawyer of the 
party in the western part of the State, willing and 
fit to take the office, and because, being an active 
and influential politician in Burlington County, where 
he resided, he had been for that reason persecuted by 
some of the Federalists. For many years after he 



312 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

became judge he was one of the most influential 
leaders of the democratic party in the State; although 
I do not remember that he was accused of allowing 
politics to influence him on the bench. His good 
sense led him generally to concur with the chief 
justice, and some of his reported opinions read very 
well. But his total lack of legal knowledge, espe- 
cially in matters of practice and pleading, was so much 
complained of by the lawyers of the circuit which he 
attended, that in 1820 an act was passed, requiring 
the justices of the supreme court so to arrange the 
several circuits in the State, there being no judicial 
districts established by law, as now, that no justice 
should hold the circuit court in the same county 
two terms in succession, unless in the ofjinion of the 
court there should be a necessity therefor. 

This hard law continued in force and was complied 
with, to the great inconvenience of the judges, until 
1846. When this law was passed there were two 
circuit courts held each year in all the counties (thir- 
teen in number) except Cape May, in which there 
was only one. The other courts had four terms in 
each year until 1855, when they were reduced to 
three, and the circuit courts in all the counties were 
required to have three terms yearly. 

I must confess that although I had been active in 
procuring this law, I could not help feeling regret 
when a judge from the northern part of the State 
was obliged to attend one of the southern circuits 
and spend two days on the road going and the same 
returning, with a very inadequate compensation. It 
should be mentioned that in those days the judge 
seldom or never took up his quarters at a hotel, but 
was gladly entertained by some member of the bar 



GABRIEL H. FORD. 313 

Upon the death of Judge Pennington m 1826, 
Rossell was strongly recommended for, and received 
the appointment of judge of the district court of 
the United States for New Jersey, a place at that time ♦ 
of great respectability and very little labor, like the 
common bench in England at the same period, to 
which judges were glad to retire from more arduous 
duties. When he retired from the bench of the su- 
preme court, a meeting of the bar, under the lead of 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, adopted resolutions highly com- 
plimentary of his faithful performance of the duties 
of his office. He died in 1810, at an advanced age. 

Upon the resignation of Mr. Southard, in conse- 
quence of his election to the senate of the United 
States in 1820, Gabriel H. Ford was chosen by the 
joint meeting to succeed him, receiving one vote more 
than Joseph Mcllvaine, the contest being, not polit- 
ical, but between East and West Jersey. 

Gabriel H. Ford was the son of Colonel Jacob Ford, 
and inherited from his father the house which became 
the head-quarters of General Washington in the winter 
of 1779-80, and is still possessed by his son. He grad- 
uated at Princeton College in 1784, studied law with 
Abraham Ogden of Newark, and was a member of 
the "Institutio Legalis," a sort of moot court of which 
William Griffith, Richard Stockton, Alexander C. Mc- 
Whoster, and Josiah Ogden Hoffman of New York, 
students at the same time, all afterwards distinguished 
lawyers, were fellow-members, and which was kept 
up with great spirit many years. He was admitted 
as an attorney in 1789, and as a counselor 1793. Mr. 
Ford was a man of very considerable talents and 
learning, and an eloquent and successful advocate ; 



314 REMraiSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

but never took a high rank as a counselor at the bar 
of the supreme court, where he seldom appeared. In 
the year 1818 an act was passed, establishing three 
judicial districts and authorizing the appointment of 
"some fit person skilled in the laws" judge for each 
of them, to be president of the several county courts, 
and to hold his office for five years. This was de- 
signed to remedy the evils so justly complained of 
by the bar and all intelligent citizens, of having such 
important courts held by a fluctuating number of 
judges, without any pretense of legal learning, and 
often without any experience. Judges were accord- 
ingly appointed, but only Mr. Ford, whose district 
consisted of the counties of Bergen, Essex, Morris, 
and Sussex, as then constituted, accepted and held 
' the courts. Being in this situation, and it being 
pretty certain that the law under which he was ap- 
pointed would be soon repealed, as it was, he had a 
fair claim to the vacant place on the bench of the 
supreme court, independent of his acknowledged 
merits. He was twice reelected, and held this latter 
office twenty-one years, when, having become infirm 
in health and somewhat deaf, he acquiesced in the 
necessity of relinquishing the place to his successor. 
During the most active years of my professional 
life, Gabriel H. Ford was one of the judges who came, 
at least once in every other year, to the circuit courts 
I attended, which were held then twice, and in Cape 
May only once a year. He was a courteous gentle- 
man, before whom it was a pleasure to appear, al- 
though we did not think his decisions on points of law 
very reliable. He shone most in charging a jury, dis- 
playing a power of persuasion that was generally ir- 
resistible. He was apt to be severe on criminals, and 



GABRIEL H. FORD. 315 

sometimes while I was the public prosecutor, urged the 
conviction of a defendant, I thought, very unreasona- 
bly. His judicial integrity was never questioned. His 
opinions, as reported, seem to me, as a general rule, 
wantino; in logical force, and are in some cases curious 
specimens of judicial reasoning. 

A novel and somewhat amusing scene occurred at a 
court of oyer and terminer held in the County of 
Cumberland, in the year 1830, at which Judge Ford 
presided. A man named Dilkes had not long before 
made his appearance, who professed to be a prophet, 
and gathered round him quite a circle of deluded fol- 
lowers. He received as divine the Old Testament, re- 
jecting the New, and claimed to follow as far as possi- 
ble the Jewish law, observing the Sabbath so strictly 
that no fire was to be used on that day. He took up 
his residence at the house of a maiden lady of some 
property, who lived with him as his wife, upon his as- 
sumption that he was entirely above all huinan laws. 
As a means of putting an end to this scandal, some 
of the neighbors complained to the grand jury, and 
procured indictments against them both for fornication. 

When the trial came on, he made his appearance 
in court, accompanied by the woman, clad in a long 
white robe, and with a Bible in his hand, and attempted 
to repeat a sort of unearthly screech, with which he 
had been accustomed to terrify his followers. But he 
was so cowed by the stern dignity of the judge, and 
all the circumstances surrounding him, as utterly to 
fail, and sat down very evidently crestfallen. 

When, as prosecutor of the pleas, I was about to 
open the case, I heard the woman urging him to 
marry her in due legal form, and I told him if he chose 
to do so, I would discontinue the proceedings. He 



316 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

declared himself willing, and I mentioned the proposal 
to the court. To my great surprise the judge told 
them to stand up, asked them if they desired to be 
married, and upon their answering in the affirmative, 
immediately proceeded with a formal marriage cere- 
mony in open court, and pronounced them man and 
wife. I thereupon, with the sanction of the court, 
entered nolle prosequis on the indictments, and the new 
made man and wife were discharged. The effect of 
this proceeding was to destroy the influence of the 
pretended prophet over his followers, and to compel 
him very soon to relinquish his pretensions and to 
leave the place. The judge justified the marriage 
upon the ground assumed in his opinion as delivered 
in the case of Pearson vs. Howey, 6 Hal. R. 17, that 
nothing more is required in New Jersey to constitute 
a valid marriage than a mutual contract solemnized 
in the presence of witnesses, and besides, he thought 
himself entitled to assume the functions of a justice 
of the peace, by virtue of his office. 

When he retired from the bench, a meeting of the 
bar adopted resolutions highly commendatory, in 
which they say very justly : " The memories of those 
associated with him upon the bench and at the bar 
will bear lasting witness of his untiring patience in in- 
vestigation, his parity, and, his independence, which 
led him at all times to adopt as a maxim, ' Be just and 
fear not ; ' so too we remember and gratefully acknowl- 
edge the constant, unvarying, and distinguished cour- 
tesy, which throughout the many years of his judi- 
cial labors marked his intercourse with the bench and 
bar." He did not resume his practice as a lawyer, 
but died in 1849, at the age of seventy-one. 



GEORGE K. DRAKE. 317 

George K. Drake was the son of Colonel Jacob 
Drake, his mother being a sister of the father of Mah- 
lon Dickerson. He was born in Morris County, in the 
year 1788, and after having had the instruction during 
several years of the Rev. Dr. Arazi Armstrong at Mend- 
ham, he entered Princeton College, and graduated in 
1808, in a class of which Bishop Meade of Virginia, 
Judge Wayne of the supreme court of the United 
States, and George Wood, were members. He studied 
law with Sylvester Russell at Morristown, was admit- 
ted as an attorney in 1812, as a counselor in 1815, 
and as a sers-eant at law in 1834. 

After his admission to the bar, he opened an office 
at Morristown, and continued to practice law there, 
until he was made a judge. In 1823 he was elected 
a member of the house of Assembly, and I had then 
the privilege of becoming well acquainted with him ; 
nor did I esteem him the less because he voted for 
my opponent as speaker, he being a fellow-member 
from his own county. The contest, indeed, was a 
friendly one, each candidate voting for the other, as 
was then the usual custom. He was reelected for the 
succeeding three years, and the two last years of his 
service was the Speaker. At a joint meeting held in 
December, 1826, he was chosen justice of the supreme 
court, vice Justice Rossell. It often occurred that 
members of the legislature were chosen judges, as was 
natural, and, indeed, generally commendable, because, 
in such cases, the members had thus some knowledge 
of the fitness of the person voted for. 

Not long after his appointment, Judge Drake re- 
moved his residence to Burlington, to meet tlie wishes 
of the bar in West Jersey, no other judge having his 
residence in that part of the State. In a few years 
he removed to Trenton. 



318 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Judge Drake was not a man of brilliant talents ; but 
what was more important, he was of excellent dispo- 
sition and character, whose integrity and fairness were 
never impeached. His opinion in the case of Hen- 
drickson vs. Decow (Saxt. R 577), which prevented 
his reappointment, is a fair test of his ability. It is 
well expressed and fairly reasoned, and is in all re- 
spects correct. He was a member of the Presbyterian 
Church and a sincere Christian, and was led by his zeal 
for the truth to put his decision on principles which, 
inasmuch as the case did not necessarily require them 
to be assumed, it might have been w^iser to avoid. 

At the fall election in 1833, the losing party, most 
of whom had previously been opposed to Jackson, 
cast their votes very generally with the Democrats, 
and this, with other causes, gave to that party a large 
majority, in both branches of the legislature. It soon 
appeared that their great object was to strike at 
Drake; and the result was that his reelection was 
defeated, although he had the support of several 
Democrats, and among others, of the man selected to 
supplant him, who very reluctantly accepted the of- 
fice when he became satisfied that at all events there 
must be a change. Improper as such a short term of 
office as seven years is, this is, I believe, the only case 
where the reappointment of a generally acceptable 
judge has been defeated by a single obnoxious de- 
cision. 

Upon the termination of his office, Judge Drake re- 
turned to Morristown, and resumed his practice as a 
lawyer. He lived, however, but a short time, having 
been seized with an attack of pleurisy while on a visit 
to his brother-in-law. Dr. Woodruff, at Drakesville, in 
1837, which terminated his life before he had reached 
the age of fifty. 



THOMAS C. EYERSON. 319 

Thomas C. Rterson, a justice of the supreme court 
four years and a half, was the third son of Martin 
Ryerson and Rhoda Hull, and born May the 4th, 1788, 
at Myrtle Grove, Sussex County, N. J., five miles west 
of Newton, the county seat. He was a great-great- 
grandson of Martin Ryerson of French Huguenot de- 
scent, who emigrated from Holland about 1660, and 
settled at Flatbush, on Long Island, and who was a 
member, from an early age, of the Dutch Reformed 
Church, as its records still show, and for those days 
possessed of considerable property. On the 14th of 
May, 1663, he married Annettie Rapelye, a daughter 
of Jaris Jansen Rapelye, who settled on Long Island in 
1625, which year his first daughter, Sara, was born, 
the first white child born on Lono; Island. From this 
marriage have sprung large numbers of the name of 
Ryerson (besides numerous descendants of the female 
branches of the family), who are scattered over New 
York, New Jersey, and several other States, and 
many in Canada; and in all of them the original 
Christian name of '' Martin " has been keJDt up, that 
being the name of both the fiither and grandfather 
of Judge Ryerson. His grandfather resided in Hun- 
terdon County, N. J., whence his father removed to 
Sussex about 1770, dying there in 1820, in his seventy- 
third year ; his father and grandfather were both dis- 
tinguished as skillful surveyors, being deputies of the 
surveyor-general of both East and West Jersey ; and 
his father was thus enabled to make very judicious 
land locations for himself, and at his death left a 
landed estate of between forty and fifty thousand 
dollars. 

Until the age of sixteen Judge Ryerson remained 
at home, working on his father's farm, and receiving 



320 REMIXISCEXCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

only the common education of the country. In 1800 
his father removed to Hamburg, in the same county, 
where he died, and in IS 04 his son began prepar- 
ing for college at a private school in the family of 
Eobert Ogden. He -was an older brother of Colonel 
Aaron Ogden. a graduate of Princeton College in 1765, 
and one of the founders of the Cliosophic Society. 
He was born at Elizabethtowu. practiced law there 
for several years, was in the American army during the 
War of the Revolution, and, on account of the effect 
of the sea air upon his health, removed, about 1785, 
to Sparta, Sussex County, five miles from Hamburg, 
where he owned considerable real estate, and died in 
that county in 1826, aged eighty years. His fifth 
daughter. Amelia, married Judge Ryerson in Novem- 
ber, 1811 ; an older daughter. Mary, was married some 
fifteen years earlier to Elias Haines of Eiizabethtown, 
the father of the Hon. Daniel Haines, late governor, 
and judge of the supreme court. After some time 
spent in this private school, he finished his pre- 
paratory studies at the Mendham. (X. J.) Academy, 
then taught by the late Hon. Samuel L. Southard, 
and in ISO" entered the junior class at Princeton, 
graduating there in 1S09, with the third honor in 
a class of forty-four. His school acquaintance with 
Mr. Southard ripened into an intimate and life-long 
firiendship, and a very warm and enduring friendship 
grew up between him and the late Judge George K. 
Drake, who graduated at Princeton in 1808. After 
graduating he studied law with the late Job S. 
Halsted of Xewton, and was admitted to the bar in 
February, 1811; four years of study with a practicing 
lawyer were then required, even of graduates, and 
during a part of this time he was out with the New 



THOMAS C. BTZBSON. 321 

Jersey militia at Sandy Hook, to resist a threatened 
attack of the British. 

Immediately after being licensed he began prac- 
ticing law at Hamburg, marrying in the following 
November, as above stated, and continued practicing 
there till April, 1820, when he removed to Newton, 
where he resided till his death, August 11, 183S, 
aged a little over fifty years. For two years, 1825— 
27, he was a member of the legislative council of this 
State, and in January, 1834, was elected by the joint 
meeting a justice of the supreme court, in place of 
Judge Drake, whose term then expired. The Hick- 
sites, mainly, as was believed, to defeat the reelection 
of Drake, aided in 1833 in electing a large majority 
of Democrats to the legislature, which the year be- 
fore had a majority of the other party. Although a 
leading and influential Democrat, and politically op- 
posed to Judge Drake, Judge Eyerson, in common 
with many other Democrats, was strongly opposed 
to this unjustifiable proscription, and a warm advo- 
cate of Judge Drake's reappointment, and used all 
his influence with the four democratic members from 
Sussex in his favor. He was not in Trenton during 
that session till after the joint meeting, and his name 
was brought forward in the democratic caucus as 
an opposing candidate, without his consent or knowl- 
edge. The leading opponents of Judge Drake fiud- 
insT that the votes of the Sussex members would 
reelect him. resorted to the use of Judge Eyerson's 
name as the only means of preventing it. and thus, 
without his knowledge, he was made the instrument 
of defeating an excellent and irreproachable judge, 
his own warm personal friend. So strong an im- 
pression had he made upon the Sussex members in 

21 



322 BEMINTSCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

favor of Judge Drake, that one of them voted for him 
in joint meeting, notwithstanding his own democratic 
caucus nomination, and other Democrats also bolted 
the nomination; so that, notwithstanding the large 
democratic majority in joint meeting, he was elected 
by only a very small majority. So strong, however, 
was the Hicksite feeling against Judge Drake that he 
received but one vote from the members south of 
the Assanpink. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen was then in the senate, 
his term to expire March 4, 1835. He also had 
given great offense to the Hicksites by his able and 
eloquent speech in the same suit, and to reach him 
the same combination was continued till the election 
of October, 1834, and resulted in sending General 
Wall to the senate in his place. 

The news of his election was a complete surprise 
to Judge Ryerson, and with it came letters from 
prominent Democrats, urging him to accept, and assur- 
ing him that his declination would not benefit Judge 
Drake ; that party lines had become drawn, and he 
could not now under any circumstances be reelected. 
He held the matter under advisement until the re- 
ceipt of a letter from Judge Drake himself, dated 
February 3, 1834, urging him to accept, " and that 
promptli/r He said also, " I feel under obligations to 
you and my other friends for your zeal in my be- 
half, but it has proved ineffectual, and I have no 
confidence in the success of another effort." And 
again, " If the place is thrown open, nobody knows 
into whose hands it may go. I rejoice that it has 
been so disposed of that we may still confide in the 
independence and integrity of the bench." This 
letter decided him to accept, and he was sworn into 



THOMAS C. RYERSON. 323 

office February 25, 1834, holding it till his death in 
August, 1838. 

Judge Ryerson's course at the bar, and on the 
bench, fully justified the opinion of Judge Drake 
quoted above, as in all positions he was a man of the 
firmest independence and strictest integrity. He 
was an able lawyer, well read, and remarkable for a 
discriminating and sound judgment, an earnest and 
successful advocate, with great inflence over courts 
and juries in Sussex and Warren, to which counties 
he confined his practice, and as a judge it is believed 
that he enjoyed in a high degree the esteem and 
confidence of the bench and bar, as well as of the 
people at large. For the last eight years of his life 
he was a very devoted member of the Presbyterian 
Church, his wife having joined it some eight years 
earlier, and dying three years before him. Her 
father was for many years an exemplary and very 
influential elder of the same denomination, and a 
large number of his descendants have been, and are 
professing Christians. 

Judge Ryerson was very easy and affable in his 
manners, delighting in social intercourse and con- 
versation,' with a great fund of anecdote, very simple 
and economical in his personal tastes and habits, 
spending, however, freely in educating his children, 
and noted for his liberality to the poor around him, 
and to the benevolent operations of his day. So much 
did he give away, that he left no more estate than he 
inherited, although in full practice for twenty years 
before his appointment as judge. He often said to 
his children that he desired only to leave them a 
good education and correct principles, and that they 
must expect to make their way in life with these only 



324 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

to depend upon. Both as lawyer and judge he was 
very painstaking and laborious, conscientiously faith- 
ful in the discharge of duty to his clients and the 
public ; having a strongly nervous temperament, the 
mental strain was too great, and resulted at length 
in a softening of the brain, from which he died after 
an illness of three months, leaving three sons and a 
daughter, and a widow, his first wife's younger sis- 
ter, and since deceased, to mourn an irreparable loss. 
Three of his children remain, the youngest son, Colo- 
nel Henry Ogden Ryerson, having been killed in May, 
1864, at the head of his regiment, on the second day's 
bloody fighting in the battles of the Wilderness in 
Virginia. 

Martin Ryerson, the eldest son of Judge Thomas C, 
graduated at Princeton in 1833, at the age of eighteen, 
in a class of forty-three, delivering the Latin saluta- 
tory, and was a justice of the supreme court from 
March, 1855, until September, 1858, when ill health 
compelled him to resign. He still lives, however, tak- 
ing an active and influential part in the business of 
the Presbyterian Church, in which he is a ruling elder. 
I am indebted to him for this interesting, and, I think, 
truthful account of his father. I had no knowledge 
of that gentleman, except as a member of the leg- 
islature, until he became a judge ; and then, although 
apparently slow in comprehending a case tried be- 
fore hiin, he showed a good knowledge of the law, 
and a very sound judgment. 

I have always understood that he was originally a 
Federalist, but belonged to that class who followed the 
"New York Evening Post," the political newspaper 
organ of Hamilton, in preferring Jackson to AdamSj 
and thus became a Democrat. It was one of the 



THOMAS C. RYERSON. 325 

marked fecatures of the change in the poUtics of this 
State that many of the leading men both of the 
federal and democratic party in Sussex (originally 
including Warren), which, up to 1820 was the leading 
federal county of the State, went for Jackson, and 
thus Sussex and Warren came to give very large 
democratic majorities. At the breaking out of the re- 
bellion Martin Ryerson, who had previously been a 
very decided and active Democrat, took a decided 
stand against the South, and is ranked now among 
the Republicans. 



CHAPTER XII. 

JUDGES I HAVE KNOWN. 

CHARLES EWING. JOHN MOORE "WHITE. DANIEL ELMER. JAMES 
S. NEVIUS. IRA C. WHITEHEAD. ELIAS B. D. OGDEN. STACY 
G. POTTS. 

/CHARLES EWING succeeded Kirkpatrick as chief 
justice in 1824, elected to this place by the joint 
meeting very much against his wishes ; not because 
he was unwilling to take the office, but because he 
was averse to the displacement of his predecessor, 
who he thought ought to have been reelected. It was 
a happy choice, and reconciled all to the change. 

His parentage was from the Scotch Irish race, in my 
opinion equal if not superior to any in the country, 
James Ewing, his father, was the grandson of Finley 
Ewing, of Londonderry, Ireland, who for his distin- 
guished bravery at the battle of Boyne-water was 
presented with a sword by King William. His father, 
Thomas Ewing, emigrated to Cumberland County, in 
this State, in the year 1718, and became the founder 
of a large family, who and their numerous descend- 
ants were, and continue to be, distinguished for great 
excellence of character. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, a 
senator from that State, and secretary of the treasury 
under Harrison, who has recently died, was a grandson. 

The mother of Charles Ewing was Martha Boyd, 
whose father was also from the north of Ireland, and 
came to Bridgeton about the year 1772, leaving his 
wife and three children in their native home. He 



CHARLES EWING. 327 

succeeded in establishing a good business in a retail 
store and sent for his family. When they arrived in 
the winter of 1773, they found the husband and father 
had recently died. The widow, one of those excel- 
lent women whose memory deserves to be perpetuated, 
continued her husband's business, and employed as her 
assistant James Ewing, then nearly thirty years of age. 
He married the widow's eldest daughter, and after be- 
ing a member of the legislature, moved to Trenton, 
about the year 1799, where he lived highly respected, 
and holding important ofi&ces until his death in 1824. 
Their only son, the future chief justice, was born in 
1780, his mother dying while he was still an infant. 

After having graduated at Princeton, and received 
the first honor, being especially distinguished for his 
proficiency in mathematics, he studied law with Sam- 
uel Leake. His preceptor is more remembered for 
his peculiarities as unusually precise and methodical 
in all his business; but he had besides a high reputa- 
tion for accurate legal knowledge, and was undoubt- 
edly a man of the most sterling integrity. Any at- 
tempt to depreciate him in the hearing of Mr. Ewing, 
was sure to meet a stern rebuke. To the end of his 
life, he always spoke of him in the highest terms of 
affection and respect ; he was too good a judge, and 
had too many opportunities of knowing well the en- 
tire character of Mr. Leake, to leave it doubtful that 
he was a lawyer of uncommon excellence. 

Of Mr Ewing's character as an advocate, I had but 
very little opportunity of judging; I only knew that 
he stood very high in the estimation of his fellow- 
practitioners, and of the community generally. As 
a judge, he fulfilled the highest expectations of all. 
His predecessor had been complained of as unwilling 



328 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

to pay sufficient attention to the -statutes regulating 
the proceedings in justices' courts, and was thought to 
be somewhat capricious in dealing with questions that 
arose upon certiorark. Some of the lawyers used to 
talk of waiting to move such cases until he was seen 
to be in the humor of reversing. Much of this com- 
plaint was unfounded, as 1 think will be readily seen by 
examining his opinions, which were generally sound. 
But however that may be, all such complaints ceased 
when the court was led by Chief Justice Ewing. 
Every one knew that he would give the most careful 
attention to every question, no matter how appar- 
ently trivial it might be. 

His integrity was never impeached, and he took 
care to maintain his high character for impartiality 
and strict adherence to the law, by the most scrupu- 
lous avoidance of everything that might seem to ex- 
cite a doubt. The salaries of the judges were small, 
and it had been the habit of those holdino; the courts 
in South Jersey, and I suppose in other parts of the 
State, to take their lodgings with friendly members of 
the bar, who were glad to be able to entertain them. 
This, of course, exposed the judges to complaints 
of partiality in regard to postponements, and other 
questions of importance not involving the merits of 
the cause. Chief Justice Ewing entirely changed this 
practice. He absolutely refused also to take any com- 
pensation for striking a jury, or for any other service 
not specially provided for in the fee bill. The con- 
sequence was that no judge ever more thoroughly 
deserved and acquired the confidence and respect of 
jurors, suitors, and advocates. 

Mr. Southard's eulogium, delivered shortly after his 
decease, by request of the common council of Tren- 



CHARLES EWING. 32'J 

ton, attended, pursuant to their resolution, by the 
judges and the bar of the supreme court, dehneates 
his character with great faithfuhiess and abiUtj^ 
Adopting the language of this beautiful effusion of lov- 
ing esteem it may be truly said : — 

" As a judge, he was learned both iu principles and cases, and 
prompt in their application ; a strict common law lawyer. Undei- 
his professional instructor, who loved the learning of the black 
letter, he had been led to the original sources of legal principles, 
and he also delighted to find in the old authorities, both the estab- 
lishment and the reason of the doctrine on which he was to decide. 
But he did not rely on theui alone. He read diligently, and derived 
the aid which they afford, from the volumes of civil and ecclesias- 
tical law, and examined carefully, and improved by all the valuable 
legal publications of the present age. He was not, however, hasty 
in adopting new systems or notions, nor liable to be mcautiously 
misled by them. To conquer his approbation, it was necessary that 
they should encounter him armed with the weapons of reason, argu- 
ment, and expediency. He was not fond of innovations in the law ; 
the inclination of his mind always was stai-e super vias antiquas. 

" He always took upon himself all the responsibilities of the 
judge, and discharged his obligations to juries fully, by guiding 
them m matters of law, and, where it was proper, aiding them in 
their estimate of facts and evidence. He held it a duty of the court 
to instruct them, both in civil and criminal cases, and would not 
permit them, in the exercise of their right to judge of the law in 
criminal matters, to disregard its provisions ; but promptly and 
efficiently interfered to arrest their errors. And this out of no dis- 
regard of their rights. For the system of jury trial he had a fond 
admiration, and watched over it with paternal care. He saw it as 
an establishment of freedom ; the privilege and shield of freemen ; 
valuable for the support and perpetuation of our institutions ; not 
only by guarding against oppression in every form, but by fre- 
quently calling on the citizen to partake in the administration of 
justice, thereby interesting his feelings in its support, and instruct- 
ing him in his own rights and duties. 

" To his labor as a judge there was but one limit, the perfect 
examination of every question he had to decide. Short of this 
point he never rested. He was not satisfied while one fact or 
authority remained unexamined, or one avenue to light unexplored. 



330 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

For personal comfort and private pecuniary interest he had a fitting 
regard ; amusements of a becoming and moral character he did not 
spurn ; social jaleasures he enjoyed ; literary and scientific acquisi- 
tions were his delight ; on domestic enjoyments his heart rested 
with fondness ; yet none of these were ever found in the way of his 
complete investigation, and his entire performance of every ofiicial 
duty." 

There is an instractive passage in the work on the 
modern Roman law of Savigny, a great German pro- 
fessor, to this effect : " When a case is submitted for 
the decision of one unskilled in law, he will generally 
decide it according to a confused impression of the 
whole ; and nevertheless, if of sound sense and de- 
cided character, will believe himself very sure of his 
point. It will, however, be very much a matter of 
chance, whether a second of like qualities will give 
the same or the opposite decision." The truthful- 
ness of this remark we have had full opportunity of 
observing in New Jersey, where our highest court has 
always had an infusion of unlearned judges; but 
Chief Justice Ewing was the farthest removed from 
such a character. He was both learned and wise. He 
was always much opposed to judicial legislation; and 
if he erred at all, it was pretty sure to be in too 
scrupulous adherence to precedents. I think he did 
err in this direction ; when he held that a will of real 
estate could only be established by proof that the 
witnesses actually saw the testator write his name ; 
and in holding that a slight misrecital of the judgment 
or execution in the sheriff's deed would invalidate the 
conveyance; and perhaps in a few other cases. But 
these were mistakes on the safe side, and were easily 
and appropriately remedied by the legislature. I re- 
member that considerable surprise was expressed by 
some of the members of the bar when the opinions 



CHARLES EWING. 331 

were read in the case of Ellet & Boyce vs. Fallen, 7 
Halsted, 357, when it appeared that the chief justice 
was in favor of overruling an ancient rule of the com- 
mon law, while Judges Ford and Drake, who were 
generally considered much more likely to do so, were 
for adhering to it strictly. 

About the time he became a judge, to escape, as 
he said, the annoyance of interruptions in the even- 
ings, he adopted the plan of very early rising, and his 
constitution requiring a full amount of sleep, he was 
accustomed, if practicable, to retire at a correspond- 
ingly early hour. This proceeding did not prove 
so useful to him as he expected ; indeed, it may be 
doubted whether, involving such a great change of 
previous habits as it did, it was not productive of more 
evil than good. I have known him to be so overcome 
with sleepiness early in the evening, as fairly to nod 
when surrounded by company. He might very proba- 
bly have done, as we are told Josiah Quincy and John 
Quincy Adams, who carried to excess early rising, did 
when they attended a lecture of Judge Story. Seated 
on the platform in full view of the class, they fell 
asleep. The lecturer perceiving this paused a moment, 
and then pointing to the two sleeping presidents, said 
with mock solemnity : " Gentlemen, you see before you 
melancholy examples of the evil effect of early rising." 

When the short term of seven years for which this 
highly acceptable judge had been appointed expired, 
he was reelected by a joint meeting opposed to him in 
politics. No one breathed a word of opposition. No 
other man could have filled the office so acceptably. 
But before the first year of his new term had expired, 
he died, carried off by that fell destroyer the cholera, 
which visited many parts of our country for the first 
time so severely in the year 1832. 



332 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

A letter from Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander to Rev. 
Dr. Hall, published in that interesting and most in- 
structive work, " Forty Years' Familiar Letters," writ- 
ten in 1859, thus hajDpily characterizes Judge Evving : 

" It deserves to be noted, among the traits of a Presbyterianism 
which is passing away, that Judge Ewing, as a baptized member of 
the Church, always pleaded his rights, and once in a public meeting 
declared himself amenable to the discipline of church courts. There 
is good reason to believe that he was a subject of renewing grace 
long before his last illness. During this brief period of suifering, 
he made a touching avowal of his faith in Christ. 

" Judge Ewing is justly reckoned among the greatest ornaments 
of the New Jersey bar. His acquaintance with his own department 
of knowledge was both extensive and profound, closely resembling 
that of the English black letter lawyers, who at this moment have 
as many imitators at the New Jersey bar as anywhere in America. 
He was eminently conservative in church and state, punctual in 
adherence to rule and precedent, incapable of being led into any 
vagaries ; sound in judgment, tenacious of opinion, indefatigable in 
labor, and incorruptibly honest and honorable, so as to be prover- 
bially cited all over the State. In a very remarkable degree he kept 
himself abreast of the general literature of the day, and was even 
lavish in regard to the purchase of books. He was a truly elegant 
gentleman of the old school ; an instructive and agreeable compan- 
ion, and a hospitable entertainer. He deserves to be mentioned in 
any record of the Church, for I am persuaded that there was no hu- 
man being to whom its interests were more dear. As the warm and 
condescending friend of my boyhood in youth, he has a grateful 
tribute from my revering affection. 

" When from any cause there was no one to preach in the church, 
the service was nevertheless carried on by the elders, according to 
the book, and a sermon was read. The reader on these occasions 
was always Mr. Ewing ; and the discourse which he selected was 
always one of Witherspoon's ; the choice in both cases being sig- 
nificant." 

From more than one conversation with Chief Jus- 
tice Ewing, I was convinced of his deeply religious 
feelings, although he was disposed to be reticent on 
such subjects. When he presided at the table, on his 



CHARLES EWING. 333 

circuits, he was accustomed to invite some one to ask 
a blessing, or more frequently to do so himself. Once 
when breakfiisting at Woodbury, Mr. Ewing, Mr. South- 
ard, then attorney-general, and myself having a table 
in a private apartment, a gentleman (if he deserves 
such a character) from Philadelphia, a stranger to us, 
was brought up by the landlord to partake with us. 
When Mr. Ewing very simply and reverently asked a 
blessing on our refreshment, the stranger was so taken 
by surprise that he made a very audible whistle. No 
immediate notice was taken of the impertinence, but 
Mr. Southard took an opportunity of rebuking the 
perpetrator pretty severely, and induced him to apol- 
ogize for his rudeness. It appeared that he had no 
idea at the time of the character and standing of the 
two gentlemen into whose company he was unexpect- 
edly brought. 

The resolutions usuall}' adopted at a meeting of the 
bench and bar, upon the retirement or death of a 
judge, are not always the most reliable evidence of 
his true character j but those recorded in the minutes 
of the court in the case of Charles Ewing are remark, 
ably discriminating and just. They are, — 

" Associated with him for a long course of years, as a pleader, an 
advocate, and a judge, we are all able to bear witness to his industry, 
his wisdom, and his worth. His deep devotion to the truth ; his un- 
tiring patience in its pursuit ; his scrupulous fidelity in the perform- 
ance of the various duties of his station ; his sound, discriminating, 
vigorous, and capacious mind; his great and extensive learning in 
the science of jurisprudence ; his unyielding, uncompromising, jeal- 
ous integrity and purity of character ; his modesty, courtesy, and 
dignity, present such an assemblage of the peculiar virtues and 
talents required in the due and ftxithful administration of justice, that 
we know not where to look upon his follow. 

To that wise and mysterious Providence which has removed him, 
in the midst of his usefulness and in the strength of his days, we 
bow with humble resignation and submission." 



834 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Less tlian a month before his lamented decease, 
namely, at the July term of that year, when he was in 
full health, I witnessed a scene in the court of chan- 
cery which was a complete contrast to that which I 
have described as occuring in the supreme court four- 
teen years earlier. It was the delivery of the opin- 
ions in the case of Hendrickson vs. Decow, involving 
the contest between the rival parties in the Society of 
Friends, The chancellor having been counsel in the 
cause while at the bar, called to his assistance on the 
hearinsT Chief Justice Ewino; and Mr. Justice Drake 
of the supreme court. A great mass of testimony had 
been taken, filling when printed two octavo volumes ; 
and the argument lasted .more than a week, George 
"Wood and Isaac H. Williamson being the counsel of 
the party usually called Orthodox, and Garret D. Wall 
and Samuel L. Southard of the party called Hicksite. 

The day for delivering the opinion was previously 
announced, and both parties attended the court in full 
force. Seldom has such a spectacle been witnessed. 
The court room was entirely changed, having been fit- 
ted up at the expense of the United states, — whose 
courts occupied it at times when the State courts were 
not sitting, — through the influence of Mr. Southard, 
while he was in the cabinet at Washington, and was 
arranged substantially as it now is. The two judges, 
both of very grave demeanor, occupied the bench. 
Facing them were arranged long rows of the leaders 
of the contesting parties ; the Orthodox on their right 
and the Hicksites on their left hands. All wore their 
accustomed dress of drab and of antique shape, and 
retained on their heads their broad-brimmed beavers. 
Each party appeared to expect success, for no one 
knew what the decision would be. All maintained their 



n( 



CHARLES EWING. 835 

accustomed quietness of manner ; but a looker-on of 
only moderate sagacity could easily perceive that they 
were awaiting the result with the deepest anxiety. 
The common and expressive phrase, " You could hear 
a pin drop," was never more applicable. 

Chief Justice Ewing led the way, and occupied an 
hour and a half in reading his opinion ; so fully con- 
sidered and so carefully stated, so cautiously avoiding 
everythiug likely to shock the feelings of the unsuc- 
cessful party, and yet entirely decisive, that no offense 
could be taken, whatever might be the result. For an 
hour, while engaged in stating the facts of the case, 
the questions necessarily involved, and the arguments 
urged on both sides, it was not easy to determine how 
he would decide. But as he progressed and the final 
conclusion became more and more apparent, it was ex- 
ceedingly interesting to notice, as my position enabled 
me to do, the change gradually working in the coun- 
tenances of the interested listeners ; on the one side 
suppressed disappointment and regret, and on the 
other, almost open triumph and exultation. He con- 
fined his opinion — reported in Saxton's Reports, p. 
574 — to the consideration of the question whether 
the Arch Street Meeting representing the Orthodox, 
Or the Green Street Meeting representing the Hicksite 
party, was the true Philadelpliia yearly meeting of 
the Society of Friends, and thus entitled to the prop- 
erty in dispute ; deciding in favor of the former, on 
the ground that the other had irregularly and ille- 
gally seceded, carefully avoiding the questions of doc- 
trine so earnestly disputed. On the subject of the 
conflicting doctrines he remarked, " In the pleadings 
of this cause, in the extended volumes of testimony, 
and in the laborious arguments of the counsel, I do 



836 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

not remember any charge that the members of the 
society who remain connected with the Arch Street 
Meeting have departed from the doctrines and prin- 
ciples of Friends as stated by their founder and his 
earher followers ; and I rejoice that I have not been 
constrained to inquire into the charge of departure, 
yo freely and frequently urged against the members 
of the Green Street Meeting. In any remarks I have 
made, I am not to be understood as asserting or coun- 
tenancing such a charge." 

The feeling with which the opinion of Justice Drake 
was received was much more marked; but still there 
was no departure on either side from that absolute 
quietism to which they had schooled themselves. But 
imfortunately this opinion affected the sensibilities of 
the losing party far more strongly than that of the 
chief justice. He held that it was not made to appear 
that the doctrines of the party called Hicksite, whether 
right or wrong, corresponded with the religious faith 
of the Society of Friends ; that there was an essential 
incompatibility in the admitted views of the opposing 
parties ; and that it would be a breach of trust and 
a perversion of the fund contributed by Orthodox 
Friends, to permit it to go into the hands of men 
who, like Hicks their leader, might teach " that the 
Scriptures have been the cause of fourfold more harm 
than good to Christendom since the Apostles' days;" 
'' or that each individual must interpret them for him- 
self, entirely untrammeled hy the opinions of man, 
and that the dictates of the light within are of para- 
mount authority to Scrij^ture, even when opposing its 
precepts." 

The meeting broke up without the slightest breach 
of decorum ; most of the individuals present exchang- 



JOHN MOORE WHITE. 337 

ing the ciistomar}^ shake, not only with those of their 
own party, but with those opposed to them. They 
departed, however, with mutual determination to main- 
tain their respective positions. The Hicksites carried 
the case into the court of appeals, where the decree 
made in the court of chancery was affirmed. 

John Moore White, judge from 1838 to 1845, was 
born at Bridge ton, in the year 1770. His flither was 
an English merchant settled in Philadelphia, who mar- 
ried the daughter of Alexander Moore, who was of 
Irish descent, and settled in Bridgeton about the year 
1730, carried on a considerable business for many years, 
and accumulated a very handsome fortune. He owned 
nearly all the land upon the east side of the Cohansey 
River, upon which the town is built, and survived his 
daughter m.any years. Both flither and mother were 
remarkably handsome persons ; it having been said 
that when they entered the Arch Street Presbyterian 
Church after the marriage, they were about as hand- 
some a couple as had ever been seen there. She died 
when their son John was an infant, leaving two other 
sons. The flither returned to England; but when the 
War of the Revolution broke out, took the side of 
America, returned to this country, obtained a commis- 
sion in the army, was aid to General Sullivan, and was 
killed at the attack on Chew's stone house at German- 
town. 

The grandfather then took charge of the three boys, 
and gave them an ordinary English education. When 
he died in 1786, he left them a large part of his real 
estate, including the Bridgeton property. John stud- 
ied law with Joseph Bloomfiekl, and was admitted as 
an attorney in 1791, as a counselor in 1799, and as ser- 

22 



338 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

geantin 1812. Taking up liis residence in Bridgeton, 
he married a Miss Zantzinger, built himself a good 
house, and entered npon the practice of his profession. 
In 1808, he removed to Woodbury, where he continued 
to reside durinti: the remainder of his life. 

His two brothers having died while young men and 
unmarried, he became entitled to all their property, 
and was a rich man. But he had no skill in making 
or keeping money, although without any dissipated 
habits, and not especially extravagant in his expendi- 
ture. During the latter years of his life, he was in- 
deed a poor man. At one time he entered into specu- 
lations in connection with Joseph Mcllvaine, and told 
me that the accounts between them were never settled, 
and he did not know which party owed ten thousand 
dollars or more to the other, and as neither of them 
could pay, it was not worth their while to ascertain 
how it was. He enjoyed remarkable health all his 
life, until some time after he was judge, when he be- 
came blind. He was active in his habits, and rather 
remarkable for driving and walking, even in cold 
weather, without an overcoat, or gloves. 

Mr. White was a handsome man, and fully six feet 
in height. While he resided in Bridgeton, he was the 
brigade major of the Cumberland brigade of militia, 
of which James Giles was the general.. The latter, 
although himself a handsome man, neat and trim in 
his appearance, was much smaller than his staff officer. 
When Mr. Adams was the president, and troubles 
arose with France, which occasioned addresses to be 
made from all quarters, the officers of the Cumberland 
militia united in an address tendering their services, 
which was presented by General Giles, attended by his 
brigade major. They wore their full uniforms, but 



JOHN MOORE WHITE. 339 

the president who knew nothing about military affairs, 
and did not pay attention to or did not understand the 
insignia of their rank, addressed Major White as the 
general, much to the mortification of the latter. I 
had the anecdote from Judyi-e White himself. 

Owning considerable tracts of unsettled land. White 
made himself thoroughly acquainted with the surveys 
located under the proprietors, and of the law applica- 
ble to them, and was justly considered an able advo- 
cate in the trial of cases involving questions of bound- 
ary, which during his early practice were very common 
in West Jersey. His business, especially after he 
removed to Woodbury, became quite large and lucra- 
tive. He was never ranked, however, among the able 
lawyers of the State. He prosecuted the pleas of 
the State for several years, in the counties of Cumber- 
land and Salem, by virtue of a deputation from the 
attorney-general. It was customary for the attorney- 
general before the Revolution, and afterwards, to ap- 
point deputies for those counties in wdiich he did not 
personally attend the courts. The validity of such 
appointments having been in some cases disputed, the 
practice was in 1812 sanctioned by an act of the leg- 
islature ; but in 1822 this act was repealed, and the 
appointment vested in the courts of quarter sessions. 
In 1823, however, the last mentioned act was in its 
turn repealed, and the joint meeting was required to 
appoint them ; and this act continued in force until 
the Constitution of 1844 vested the appointment in 
the governor and senate. 

He was a Federalist, and represented the County of 
Gloucester several times in the legislature. In the 
year 1833 he was appointed attorney-general of the 
State, holding the office the constitutional term of five 



340 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

years. He prosecuted the pleas of the State in sev- 
eral of the counties very successfully, and was desirous 
of continuing in the office, rather than to assume the 
more important and difficult duties of a justice of the 
supreme court, for which he did not feel himself very 
competent, as I heard him repeatedly say. But it 
suited those who at the time controlled the joint meet- 
ing, to assign the office of attorney-general to another 
person; and Mr. White, in 1838, was elected a justice 
of the supreme court, the number of judges being 
now increased to five. 

He had now attained the age of sixty-eight years, 
and although still enjoying good health, did not make 
a very satisfactory judge. He was not deficient in 
good, sound judgment, and generally decided the ques- 
tions that came before him correctly ; but in charging 
a jury, he was very deficient. His honesty of inten- 
tion was never questioned. After the expiration of 
his office he lived very much in retirement during 
the remainder of his life, protracted to the year 1862, 
when he died at the age of ninety-one. He had one 
daughter, who died at the age of sixteen, and left no 
descendants. 

Daniel Elmer was a justice of the supreme court 
four years. He was born in the County of Cumber- 
land, in the year 1784, was the fifth Daniel in reg- 
ular lineal descent from the Rev. Daniel Elmer, who 
was settled as pastor of the old Cohansey Presbyte- 
rian Church in 1729, who died in 1755, and left sev- 
eral children, the descendants of w^hom, now a numer- 
ous body, still reside in South Jersey. He was a de- 
scendant of Edward Elmer, who came to this country 
from England in 1632, as a part of the congregation 



DANIEL ELMER. 341 

of Eev. Thomas Hooker. He settled in Hartford, in 
Connecticut, and was killed by the Indians in 1676. 
The ftimily name was originally Aylmer, of whom 
one was chief baron of the exchequer in 1535. 
John Aylmer was tutor of the celebrated Lady Jane 
Grey, and in 1568 was made Bishop of London by the 
name of John Elmer, as appears by the case of Elmer, 
Bishop of London, vs. Gale, in 5 Coke's Reports. A 
Lord Aylmer not long ago resided in Quebec. Dan- 
iel's flither, while himself a young man, and w^ith but 
little property, dying when he was only about eight 
years old, he was left to the care of my father. Dr. 
Ebenezer Elmer, his great uncle, with whom he lived 
for several years, and had only a common school edu- 
cation. From his earliest years he exhibited those 
traits of unceasing activity and energy which remained 
until he was disabled by disease. 

About the year 1800, he was put to the study of 
the law, with General Giles, of Bridgeton, and served 
a regular clerkship with him, the five years then re- 
quired of a student who was not a graduate of some 
college. His preceptor was the county clerk, and his 
pupil earned his board and most of his clothing by 
writing for him and others, and thus acquired an ex- 
cellent style of penmanship, and great fixcility in trans- 
acting business. 

He was licensed as an attorney in the fall of 1805, 
and at first had serious thoughts of commencing busi- 
ness in some other more promising locality ; but this 
purpose he soon relinquished, and opened an office in 
Bridgeton. He was licensed as a counselor in 1808, 
and called to the degree of sergeant at law in 1828. In 
1808 he married a daughter of Colonel Potter, and had 
several children, all of whom died in infancy or early 



342 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

youth, except two, a son (Charles E. Ehner, Esq., of 
Bridgeton) and a daughter, who still survive. His res- 
idence continued to be in Brido-eton during^ his life. 

The removal of John Moore White gave hini the 
opportunity of acquiring an extensive and lucrative 
practice. I should mention, however, that in his day 
the lawyer in New Jersey who made three thousand 
dollars a year by his business, was considered as a 
very successful practitioner. Such was his indefatiga- 
ble industry, and so sagacious was he in the acquisi- 
tion and in the preservation of property, that he would 
not have failed of success anywhere, or in any busi- 
ness. His early education had been very meagre, and 
during his clerkship he had no time for systematic 
study. His knowledge of law, which became, however, 
quite extensive, and so far as it went very accurate, 
was mainly acquired, as has been the case with many 
other very successful lawyers, by a careful study of 
the cases he was called upon to undertake in his 
practice. A large part of his business was the collec- 
tion of debts, and in these cases, as was formerly the 
usage, his emolument consisted almost entirely of the 
legal costs. Many lawyers pay but little attention to 
this source of income now ; but I have known at least 
three others in this State who left large estates, 
mainly derived from a careful collection of costs safely 
invested. In 1810 I became a student in his office, 
and I remember that during my clerkship I had the 
pleasure (if so it might be called) of drawing two dec- 
larations, the legal fees for which averaged one hun- 
dred dollars each They were counts on constable's 
bonds, where default had been made in collectino; or 
paying over a great number of executions issued by 
justices of the peace. The possibility of such costs 



DANIEL ELMER. 343 

was put an end to by an amend rneni? of the fee bill, 
introduced by Mr. Griffith in 1824, by which the sum 
of one dollar and fifty cents, and seventy five cents 
for the copy, were allowed for all declarations, and no 
more, instead of twenty cents for drawing and twelve 
for the copy, of every sheet of one hundred words, as 
was the provision of the previous fee bill. 

During the war with Great Britain he was captain 
of a uniformed company of the militia, and afterwards 
rose through the various grades until he became gen- 
eral of the Cumberland brigade, by which title he 
was generally addressed. So difterent was the feel- 
ing in regard to the militia at that time from that 
which prevails now, that as soon as I was eighteen, my 
father insisted that I should pay no fines, but perform 
the regular duties of parade, and I became a subal- 
tern in a uniformed company of artillery, and for sev- 
eral years was the brigade major and inspector. The 
day of the general training was, in those days, the 
principal holiday, when there was a great turnout of 
women and children to see the troops drilled and in- 
spected by the general and his staff. 

Captain Elmer was the means of frightening the 
good people of Bridge ton in the year 1814, under cir- 
cumstances alarming enough at first, but in the end 
quite amusing. A British ship of the line visited Del- 
aware Bay, and continued to blockade the river dur- 
ing all the summer, broke up the navigation as high 
as the Cohansey, and occasionally sent a party ashore 
to forage or procure water. For fear boats from the 
ship might come up the river and plunder the town, 
then having about eight hundred inhabitants, a guard 
was detailed every night, and posted at a station 
about two miles from the town by land, but five or six 



344 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

by the water. All the boats and vessels passing the 
guard-house during the night, were hailed and re- 
quired to give an account of themselves. If an en- 
emy appeared, a messenger was to be sent to a pru- 
dent officer in the town, who was intrusted with the 
duty of giving the alarm, by firing a cannon and ring- 
ing; the court-house bell. 

About two o'clock of a midsummer's night, the gun 
was fired and the bell rung with great animation. 
The alarm and tumult that ensued -may be imagined, 
but cannot easily be described. Great was the con- 
sternation, for no one doubted that the enemy was at 
hand. Women and children were crying, and some 
endeavored to hide their valuables ; and the men ran 
to and fro. The militia, except some, who as usual 
were among the missing, were assembled, and an at- 
tempt made to array them for action. My cannon, 
which had been heretofore used only for salutes, was 
only an incumbrance, for we had no balls. Happily, 
however, it soon appeared, by a message from the 
captain, that the alarm was a false one, although it 
had not been sounded until all doubt of its necessity 
seemed to be removed. It originated from the timid- 
ity of a fixmily near the guard-house, who heard the 
discharge of two or three guns which had been ex- 
posed to wet the night before, and were fired off that 
they might be reloaded; and from the foolhardiness 
of the skipper of a small sloop, who thought it good 
fun to pass the guard without answering their chal- 
lenge, and who succeeded in bringing on himself and 
crew a volley of musketry, the captain in command 
not being a man it was safe to trifle with, and ran the 
risk of being killed by a ball which passed directly 
over his head. 



DANIEL ELMER. 345 

After I commenced business as a lawyer myself, and 
for a quarter of a century, I was of course obliged 
very often to combat my old master; and many a 
hard fought battle we had. Both were apt to be im- 
patient, and were resolute and persevering; and to 
make our encounters more apt to be disagreeable than 
they otherwise would have been, much of the litiga- 
tion was before the court of common pleas, without 
the presence of a judge we could respect. 

Upon the resignation of Judge Dayton, in 1841, 
Daniel Elmer was appointed by the joint meeting a 
justice of the supreme court. He had been a Federal- 
ist in early life and was now a Whig. He had, how- 
ever, been too much engaged by his business to be 
much of a politician, and I think it cannot be doubted 
that most of the federal lawyers were benefited by be- 
ing so many years in a hopeless minority, that they 
did not aspire to have any office, and were thereby re- 
quired to be more dihgent in the regular business of 
their profession. He hesitated at first about accepting 
the office, which he had not solicited, partly because 
the salary and perquisites, amounting to about eight- 
een hundred dollars, out of which all the travelling 
expenses had to be paid, were much less than he was 
earning ; and partly for other reasons. But as by this 
time he was very easy in his circumstances, and was 
desirous of some repose, he accepted the appointment. 

The most important case it fell to his lot to try, 
while he was on the bench, was the indictment against 
young Mercer for murder. He had shot a young man 
on board a steamboat, so that he died at Camden, who 
was believed to have seduced his sister in Philadelphia. 
This was among the first of the cases, now unfortu- 
nately so common, in which the sentiment of the com- 



346 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

muiiity seems to have reached the conclusion, that as 
the Clime cannot otherwise be adequately punished, 
the murder of the criminal, if perpetrated by a hus- 
band, father, or brother, must be tolerated. I was my- 
self written to by a friend of the accused and asked 
if I w^ould take a fee and aid in the defense. I an- 
swered that I would, but it must be understood that I 
would not go further than to present fairly to the 
court and jury whatever questions of law and fact 
should appear to me properly debatable. As I ex- 
pected, I heard nothing more from my correspondent. 
The trial took place at Woodbury, the county seat 
of Gloucester County, of which Camden was then a 
part. In one respect I thought the judge counnitted 
a great mistake. The court of oyer and terminer, in 
which he presided, consisted of several county judges, 
who partook of the public feeling strongly in favor of 
the accused. When a question of evidence arose, 
sometimes a question of great importance, he heard 
the argument and then consulted with the other 
judges, announcing the opinion of the majority, from 
which he was sometimes compelled openly to dissent. 
Had he followed the course I found it best to adopt 
myself, of giving, as soon as the argument was closed, 
my own opinion, and the reasons for it, and then de- 
siring the other judges if they dissented to say so, he 
would, in most of the cases, have escaped the necessity 
of announcing a very erroneous decision. There is 
no reason, however, to suppose that the result would 
have been different. A clear case of technical murder 
was proved, and he charged the jury very explicitly, 
but the verdict w^as. Not guilty. It must be stated, 
however, that Mercer was himself ruined by the crime. 
He never got over the shock to his nervous system, 



JAMES S. NEVIUS. 347 

occasioned by the scenes through which he had passed, 
and after some years, when the yellow fever prevailed 
so fatally at Norfolk, in Virginia, volunteered as a 
nurse, took the fever himself, and died, it was said, a 
true penitent. 

Judtre Elmer was chosen a member of the conven- 
tion convened to form a new constitution in 1844. 
For many years he was president of the Cumberland 
Bank. But even before he took a seat on the bench, 
he had begun to show symptoms of overwork. In- 
deed, I frequently remonstrated with him and warned 
him of the dano-er he was incurrino;. But men of his 
temper and disposition can never be convinced of this 
error ; he was accustomed to say, that to him it was 
easier to work than to play. In the winter, after he 
had sat in the convention, he had a slight apoplectic 
attack, which so disabled him as to make it necessary 
for him to resign his office, and from which he never 
recovered. He died in 1848. Some years before his 
death he became a member of the Presbyterian 
Church. To say that he was a strictly honest and just 
man is hardly praise ; for these are characteristics 
which have been always attributed to the family to 
which he belonged. 

James S. Nevius was a justice of the supreme 
court fourteen years. He was born in Somerset 
County in the year 1786, and graduated at Princeton 
Colleure in 1816. Having; studied law with Frederick 
Frelinghuysen, he was licensed as an attorney in 
November, 1819, admitted as a counselor in 1823, 
and called to be a sergeant at law in 1837. In 1838, 
upon the death of Judge Ryerson, he was chosen by 
the joint meeting a justice of the supreme court, and 
again appointed by the governor in 1845. 



348 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

He took up his residence, and followed his profes- 
sion as a lawyer in New Brunswick, where he con- 
tinued to reside until after the expiration of his 
second term as a judge in 1852, w^hen he removed 
to Jersey City, where he died in 1859. I had no 
personal acquaintance with him, and no knowledge 
of his professional habits while he was at the bar. 

As a judge he undoubtedly showed very consider- 
able talents, especially in presiding at the circuits and 
charging a jury. He was not, however, generally 
considered as having a very accurate knowledge of 
the law, nor are his opinions, although generally 
well and forcibly expressed, always safe to be fol- 
lowed. The characteristics w^hich endeared him to 
his personal friends were not such as were specially 
fitted to make him a safe and able judge, but were 
rather those of the friend and companion. His im- 
pulses were generous, his sympathy was easily excited, 
and he was ready in showing favors to others, ofteil to 
his own detriment. His unfailing humor and love of 
anecdote made him the life of the social circle, at 
home and abroad. Indeed, these characteristics be- 
came so prominent as greatly to interfere with his 
usefulness. 

AVhen I went on the bench in 1852, he had a few 
months of his term still to serve, and I found him a 
most agreeable associate. But at this time the ap- 
pointments were in the gift of a democratic governor, 
and as the first governor under the constitution, who 
was a Whig, had unfortunately confined his judicial 
appointments to his own party, now, wdien they ex- 
pired, the party in power insisted upon having at 
least a share of them. In the fluctuations of party 
which have since occurred, it has_ happened that the 



IRA C. WHITEHEAD. 349 

two parties have been pretty equally represented on 
the bench, as ought to be the case whatever party 
predominates. 

After his retirement from the bench, Judge Nevius 
resumed the practice of law; but I believe without 
very flattering success. To most men, especially to 
those whose habits of legal study are not confirmed, 
absence from the bar for so long a period as four- 
teen years, renders success as attorneys or advocates 
almost impossible. And it was not long before health 
began to fail. 

He had been early trained in the catechism and 
indoctrinated in the system of evangelical truth by 
pious parents, and by his pastor, Rev. Mr. Cannon. 
He was always a respecter of religion, a careful and 
constant reader of the Bible, and is said to have been 
for many years before his death in the habit of family 
and secret prayer; and although he yielded to temp- 
tation, and indulged to excess in the love of fun, such 
a training and such habits, as might be expected, ul- 
timately brought their appropriate reward. He fre- 
quently sought the society and the correspondence of 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, who in this, as in so many other 
cases, acted the part of a faithful Christian friend, and 
had the pleasure, at last, of seeing him become an 
avowed disciple of the Lord Jesus. 

Ira C. WmTEBnEAD was a justice of the supreme 
court one term of seven years. He was born near 
Morristown in 1798; had his preparatory education 
at the academy in that town, and graduated at Prince- 
ton College in 1816, in a class of which Bishop M'll- 
vaine. Rev. Dr. John Maclean, and Judge Nevius were 
members. 



350 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

He studied law at Newark with Honiblower ; was 
licensed as an attorney in 1821, and as a counselor 
at law in 1824. He practiced his profession for a 
short time at Schooley's Mountain, but soon removed 
to Morristown, married a Miss Johnson, a most esti- 
mable lady, and continued to reside there until his 
death. He was for some time a partner of George 
K. Drake, who preceded him in the office of judge. 
During his professional life as a lawyer, I had no 
special knowledge of his business, and only know that 
he maintained a very respectable standing at the bar. 
In 1841, upon the expiration of Judge Ford's term, 
he was chosen by the joint meeting, then having a 
majority of Whigs, a justice of the supreme court. 

As a judge he was highly respected, and fulfilled 
the important duties of that office with a single aim 
to do justice. His opinions, as reported in 3d and 4th 
Harrison, Spencer, and Zabriskie, show him to have 
been a painstaking, conscientious, reliable judge. His 
opinion and the decision of the court in Den vs. Allaire, 
Spencer, 6, was a good deal questioned, but it was 
certainly in the right direction; and now the fourth 
section of the supplement to the act concerning wills, 
approved March 12, 1851, so far as subsequent wills 
are concerned, has carried the principle still farther. 

When his term expired in 1848, the politics of the 
State had become democratic, and all the judges — 
at that time five — were Whigs. Governor Haines 
yielded, I believe, reluctantly to the demand for the 
appointment of one belonging to the prevailing party. 
On his retirement from the bench. Judge Whitehead 
resumed his practice very successfully. After a few 
years, at the request of the bar, he accepted a seat on 
the bench of the court of common pleas, and presided 



ELIAS B. D. OGDEN. 



351 



in that court one or two terms. His cliaractcr as a 
man of the most unswerving integrity of purpose, 
caused him to be named executor of the wills of 
several persons leaving large estates, and among 
others of William Gibbons, who died at Madison, and 
was the principal legatee of his father, Thomas Gib- 
bons, and defendant in the case of Den vs. Gibbons, 
2 Zab. 117, where the extraordinary will of the flither 
is oiven in full. The business thus intrusted to him, 
in itself important and lucrative, occupied his time 
and attention durinsi: the remainder of his life. Some 
five years before his death he suffered a slight attack 
of paralysis, and died of apoplexy in 1867. 

He was an earnest Christian gentleman, and liberal 
in his donations for benevolent and Christian objects, 
having only a moderate fortune, one half of which 
was left for similar purposes. His wife and his only 
dauo[;hter died before him. 

Elias B. D. Ogden was the son of Governor Aaron 
Oo-den, and Avas born at Elizabethtown in 1800. He 
graduated at Princeton in 1819; was licensed as an 
attorney in 1824, as a counselor in 1829, and was 
made n sero;eant at law in 1837, and was the last law- 
yer raised to that dignity in the State. 

He practiced his profession for several years in Pat- 
erson, and was prosecutor of the pleas two terms. He 
was once or twice a member of the legislature, and 
for a time president of the bank. In 1844 he was a 
member from the County of Passaic of the constitu- 
tional convention, and took an active part in the 
deliberations of that body. 

In 1848 he was appointed by Governor Haines 
one of the justices of the supreme court, in the place 



352 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of Judge Whitehead, whose term expired. He was 
reappointed in 1855 by Governor Price, and again in 
1862 by Governor Olden. Until we sat together on 
the bench of the supreme court, I had only a gen- 
eral acquaintance with him ; during the eleven years 
we were associate judges, our relations were always 
friendly. If we did not always agree in opinion, and 
as independent thinkers that could not be expected, 
we differed with cordial respect for each other. He 
was a man of strong intellect and much natural sa- 
gacity; highly respectable, but not distinguished as 
a judge. Educated in the old federal foith, like his 
father, he preferred Jackson to Adams, and thus be- 
came a member of the democratic party, to which 
he adhered with moderation during his life. Like 
most of those belonging to that party in New Jersey, 
who, whatever opinions they entertained in regard to 
the origin or conduct of the war with the Southern 
Confederation, deemed it their duty to aid in bringing 
it to a safe conclusion, so as to maintain the integ- 
rity of the Union, he carefully abstained from giving 
countenance to any attempt to oppose the measures 
of the federal government. In the case of The State 
vs. Zulich, reported in 5 Dutch. 409, he ruled that, as 
a judge of the state court, he had no authority to 
interfere for the release of a person charged with an 
offense ag-ainst the laws of the United States. 

Judcre Garden continued to reside in Paterson until 
1858, when he returned to his native town, and to 
the old homestead of his father. In the early part of 
1865 he was attacked by pneumonia, which termi- 
nated his life. He was a member of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, an active, influential member of the 
conventions of that denomination, and a trustee of 
the collea-e at Burlington. 



'&'" "" ^.-IXXXX.Q. 



STACY G. POTTS. 353 

Stacy G. Potts was one of the justices of the su- 
preme court one term of seven years. The paternal 
ancestor, from whom he was the fourth in descent, was 
Thomas Potts, a Friend, who emitrrated from Eno;land 
with his wife and children, in company with Mahlon 
Stacy and his family, in the ship Shield, and landed at 
Burlington in the winter of 1678, she being the first 
ship that went so fir up the Delaware. Stacy was a 
leading man in the Society of Friends and in the 
government of West Jersey. The families of Stacy 
and Potts intermarried, and thus the two names were 
interchanged in both. Stacy owned a plantation of 
eight hnndred acres on both sides of the Assanpink 
Creek, which he sold in 1714 to Colonel William Trent 
of Philadelphia, from whom the city of Trenton took 
its name. 

Stncy Potts, the gnindfither of the judge, was a tan- 
ner, and carried on his business at Trenton. His resi- 
dence was on the west side of King (now Warren) 
Street, opposite Perry, and during the Revolution and 
afterw\ards he kept a house of entertainment. Colonel 
Rahl had his head-quarters there in December, 1776, 
and when he was mortally wounded, was taken and 
died there. 

The fother took up his residence at Harrisburg, and 
in 1791 married a Miss Gardiner of Philadelphia, a 
Presbyterian. Their son, Stacy Gardiner Potts, was 
born in Harrisburg in November, 1799. Very soon 
after his birth his father purchased a large tract of 
unimproved land in Northumberland County, Pennsyl- 
vania, where Stacy continued to reside until the year 
1808, when the father and son walked together to 
Trenton, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, 
arriving at the latter place on the fourth day of their 

23 



354 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

journey. When they arrived at the bank of the river 
opposite the city, and before crossing the bridge, then 
newly erected, the boy remarked, " I like the looks 
of that place ; I think I shall live there all my life." 

Stacy took up his residence with his grandfather, 
then mayor of the city, and commenced his education 
in the Friends' School. After four years thus passed, 
he was entered as an apprentice in a printing-office; 
and having access to a bookstore, and being a mem- 
ber of a debating club established by the teachers of 
the Presbyterian Sunday-school, of which he was one, 
he became a diligent reader, and cultivated a taste for 
speaking and composition, soon contributing articles in 
prose and verse for the newspapers. 

In 1821, when he became of age, he was employed 
as editor of the " Emporium," a weekly newspaper, for 
which, and for a magazine published in Philadelphia, 
he wrote many articles. Havhig married, while thus 
maintaining himself and family, he commenced the 
study of law, for a short time with Mr. Stockton, but 
mainly with Garret D. Wall. He was licensed, as an 
attorney in 182 7, and as a counselor in 1830. During 
his year of preparation, he was obliged to earn his 
maintenance by continuing to edit the "Emporium," 
which became a leading democratic paper and sup- 
porter of General Jackson. He also taught a class in 
a girls' school for an hour each day. In 1828 and 1829, 
he was elected to the legislature as a Jackson Demo- 
crat. In 1831 he was elected by the joint meeting 
clerk of the court of chancery ; and was reelected in 
1836, holding the office ten years. This he made for 
the first time a very lucrative office, more, however, as 
I have heard him say, by making himself thoroughly 
acquainted with the practice and proceedings in equity, 



STACY G. rOTTS. 355 

and by drawing the necessary process, decrees, etc.^ for 
the solicitors, for which they were glad to allow him 
their fees, than by the proper business of the office. 
He thus, and by his subsequent practice as a lawyer, 
acquired a very handsome competency. In 1841 he 
published a book of chancery precedents very useful 
to the bar, and still in demand. 

At the close of his clerkship, his health, always fee- 
ble from something resembling hereditary gout, hav- 
ing suffered from his close attention to his laborious 
occupation, he made a voyage to Europe, in company 
with his brother, the late Rev. William S. Potts, D. D., 
an eloquent preacher in St Louis. And it is to be 
noted that he had another brother in the ministry, the 
Rev. Theophilus G. Potts, who died in 1844. He was 
a careful observer of the legal proceedings in the 
courts of Great Britain, and visited most of the re- 
markable places in that country, and some on the Con- 
tinent, returning greatly benefited by the timely re- 
laxation. In 1844 the honorary degree of A. M. was 
conferred on him by Princeton College. In 1845, in 
conjunction with Peter D. Vroom, Henry W. Green, 
and William L. Dayton, he collated and revised the 
statute laws of the State, the labor of the arrans-e- 
ment, printing, and index falling mainly on him. In 
1847 he was appointed one of the first managers of 
the State Lunatic Asylum, continuing in the board 
until he went on the bench. 

In 1852 he was nominated by Governor Fort, and 
confirmed by the senate, one of the justices of the 
supreme court, taking as his circuit the counties of 
Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, and Ocean, the court 
then consisting of five judges. He was associated 
with Chief Justice Green and judges Ogden, Elmer, and 



356 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Haines. Up to the time of his appointment as clerk 
of chancery I liad but a shght acquaintance with him, 
and during that time only such as our business rela- 
tions required. When we came to be associated dur- 
ing seven years as judges, our relation became inti- 
mate, and my esteem for him grew with every re- 
currino: vear of our intercourse. 

Although quick to learn, and earnest to fulfill his 
duties, as might be expected from his previous train- 
ino-, when he took his seat on the bench he was defi- 
cient in some branches of legal learning. He bad 
had no experience in criminal proceedings, nor was he 
well versed in the more abstruse branches of the law 
of real estate. But he was, on the whole, a very good 
judge, and deservedly popular with the bar and 
the public in general. He had no such pride of 
opinion as hindered him from being willing to correct 
any error into which he had fiiUen. In all matters 
relating to contracts and to equity, his knowledge was 
accurate and his opinions reliable. In consultation 
he was open to conviction, without the weakness of 
always deferring to the opinions of others. Although 
he wrote with great flicility and in a good style, he 
was seldom willing to reconstruct his opinion, even if 
he changed his mind. A careful perusal of his opin- 
ion in the case of Den vs. Philhower & Sowers, 4 Zab. 
801, wall show that it was at first written in favor of 
affirming the judgment in the circuit court ; but when 
on further examination of the current of decisions in 
the State, he found that this would be to hold rather 
what the law ought to be than what it was, he altered 
the last proposition on page 807, and thus came to a 
different result, in accordance with the opinion of all 
the other judges. But such a change of opinion is 



STACY G. POTTS. 357 

not unusual. It happened in one case that I drew up 
an opinion, and, the case being reargued, became con- 
vinced I was wrong; but a majority of the judges 
thinking the opinion right adopted it with but slight 
alteration. Perhaps the most important case before 
Judoi;e Potts was that of Cornelius vs. Giberson, 1 
Dutch. 1, involving the location of the line between 
East and West Jersej^ His ruling on that question 
remains undisturbed, although the judgment was re- 
versed on the question of fact as to adverse posses- 
sion, 

A case occurred in the spring of 1856, which, al- 
though it related to a serious subject, afforded me a 
good deal of amusement. One of the Camden steam 
ferry-boats took fire while crossing the river, and a 
number of persons, incUiding some residents of Phila- 
delphia, lost their lives. This tragedy excited much 
feeling, increased as usual by the comments of the 
newspapers, and there were strong statements that 
the directors of the company would be indicted for 
murder in the city, and there was real danger of a 
result that might be very unjust. In this state of 
affairs, by the advice of an astute lawyer, a formal 
charge of manslaughter was made in Camden against 
the respectable gentlemen who were the directors, 
one of whom resided in Trenton, and they were 
arrested. As an ordinary magistrate could not bail 
them, Judge Potts was sent for in haste and held the 
accused to a pretty heavy bail. 

When I saw him a few days afterwards, he told me 
very gravely of the circumstance and of the agitation 
displayed by some of the individuals bailed, one of 
whom actually shed tears. It had happened that the 
prosecutor of the State for Camden County had been 



358 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

called away from a court I was holding to attend the 
examination of the prisoners, and had found himself 
obliged to excuse himself by explaining the whole 
affair. It thus became known to me that the real 
object was to enable these defendants to avail them- 
selves of the provisions in the compact between Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey, respecting jurisdiction over 
the river Delaware, that each state should have con- 
current jurisdiction over crimes committed on the 
river, but that the investigation and determination 
thereof should be exclusively vested in the state 
wherein the offender should be first apprehended, 
arrested, or prosecuted. But Judge Potts and most 
of the defendants were kept in profound ignorance 
of this purpose, and thought they had been engaged 
in a very serious transaction, and it was with difficulty 
I could make the judge understand that probably 
nothino- more serious would occur than that several 
very respectable gentlemen would be delivered from 
an unpleasant charge. The result was that a bill of 
indictment was duly drawn and laid before the grand 
jury of Camden County, who examined the witnesses 
and ignored the bill ; and the accused, when subse- 
quently indicted in Philadelphia, upon this fact being 
shown, were discharged. 

Upon the expiration of his term of office, in 1859, 
his health had become so much impaired that he 
declined a reappointment, and replacing his library 
with literary, historical and religious books, he de- 
voted his time to their perusal, together with the 
Scriptures, and commenced a work entitled, "The 
Christ of Revelation," in which he made some p^-og- 
ress, but did not live to finish. His principle as to 
the disposal of his income is worthy of record as an 



•STACY G. POTTS. 359 

example. His resolution was " to practice a rational 
economy in mj own expenditures, and a liberal pro- 
fusion in the cause of my Master, who has given me 
all I have." 

His mother was a Presbyterian, and made her first 
profession of faith at Trenton in 1810, and shortly 
afterwards her husband with their four children were 
baptized. The judge's own record of his religious im- 
pressions, derived at first from his mother, is as fol- 
lows : " I do not remember when I had no serious 
thoughts. As my mind opened to comprehend the 
goodness and beneficence of God in his Providence ; 
his glory and power as exhibited in nature ; and his 
wondrous love in redemption, my heart was often 
filled with love and my eyes with tears. My young 
circle of friends numbered some ardently pious stu- 
dents of theology, as I grew up ; but I was resolutely 
opposed to the Calvinistic scheme. 

"In the year 1817-18, my connection with the 
Sabbath-school introduced me into the delightful 
young circle at the Rev. S. B. How's, the pastor ; and 
here Scott's ' Force of Truth ' was put in my hands by 
his brother, the late Dr. James C. How of Delaware. 
I read it carefully, and became convinced that I was 
wrong, and that no other scheme can be reconciled 
with a full, intelligent conception of the infinite per- 
fections and attributes of God. This removed every 
difficulty in the way of my uniting with the Church, 
except a timidity which hung about me like an iron 
chain, and which still kept me from a public profes- 
sion, notwithstanding my convictions of duty, my 
mother's earnest prayers, and the advice of friends, 
imtil the approaching responsibilities of the married 
life fixed my purpose." He was received to the com- 



860 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

munion of the Church in 1822, and was ordained a 
ruling elder in 1836. 

He was at different times connected with various 
boards and institutions of the Church. When a mem- 
ber of the General Assembly in 1851, he was made 
chairman of a special committee to arrange the com- 
plicated finances of the Church. His report, presented 
the next year, and published in full in the appendix 
to the minutes, elicited great admiration for the skill 
and labor it evinced, and placed the accounts (ar- 
ranged in fifty-six different schedules) on a permanent 
oasis. He was engaged in the Sunday-school as a 
teacher or superintendent thirty-six years. He was 
a diho-ent reader of the Bible. A few months before 
his death he wrote, " I have read the Bible through 
many times, and portions of it daily for now nearly 
sixty years ; but a close, critical, and prayerful re-read- 
ing, as a study, interests me exceedingly. Truly it is 
a fountain of exhaustless light and life." 

His health continued to decHne, and in 1865, man- 
ifestly matured in grace through his afflictions, he 
entered upon his rest. In preparing this notice of 
nim, 1 have made free use of an article in a Trenton 
newspaper, written, I believe, by his pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Hall. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

JUDGES I HAVE KNOWN. 

JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. WILLIAM L. DAYTON. EDWARD W. 
WHELPLEY. GEORGE H. BROWX. 

JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER was chief justice of 
the supreme court fourteen years, chosen by the 
joint meeting in 1832, upon the death of Chief Justice 
Ewing, and reelected in 1839. As the president of 
the Historical Society, he has been fully commemo- 
rated in a memoir read before the society by his suc- 
cessor in that office, the late Judge Field, and pub- 
lished with its proceedings. 

At the time of his appointment he was fifty-five 
years old, having been born at Belleville, in Essex 
County, in the year 1777. His father was from Eng- 
land and by profession a civil engineer, who came to 
this country in 1753; was a member of the legislature 
and a delegate to the Continental Congress, and died 
in 1809 at the age of eighty years. 

The future chief justice was the youngest of twelve 
children, and was a small and delicate child, of a 
feeble constitution and sickly habit, and seemed des- 
tined to an early grave ; indeed I have heard him say, 
after he had passed his threescore and ten years, that 
he never expected to live so long. Although he did 
in fact live far beyond the year when, according to 
the inspired Psalmist, the strength of man is labor 
and sorrow, he was all his life of feeble health ; and 



862 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

it cannot be doubted, that, although by no means 
deficient in mental acumen, his want of that resolute 
self-will which seems necessary to produce a firm 
adherence to settled opinions, the absence of which 
was his chief defect as a judge, was owing to this 
physical constitution. At the age of sixteen he had 
an attack of paralysis, from which he recovered very 
slowly. After a service of ten years in New York 
with a brother-in-law engaged in mercantile business, 
he entered the office of David B. Ogden, then a 
young and rising lawyer in Newark, afterwards a dis- 
tinguished lawyer in New York. Not having taken 
a degree in any college, it became necessary for him, 
in accordance with the rule then in force, to serve a 
clerkship of five years before he could be licensed as 
an attorney. In February, 1803, he was admitted to 
the bar, became a counselor in 1806, and in 1816 a 
sergeant at law. Before his admission to practice, he 
was taken into partnership with his preceptor. His 
business as a lawyer soon became large and lucrative. 
He married a granddaughter of Dr. William Bur- 
net (an elder sister of Mrs. Governor Pennington), 
and resided all his life in Newark. When I became 
acquainted with him, I regarded him as the ablest 
advocate at the Newark bar. His talents were such 
as better fitted him for this position than for that of 
a judge. He was untiring in his industry, and his 
knowledge was always at his fingers' ends and ready 
for use. He belonged to that class of lawyers who 
easily persuade themselves that their client's cause is 
just, and was sometimes very slow to see the justice 
of an adverse decision. But he aimed scrupulously 
to confine his efforts within the limits of fair argu- 
ment, and was too honest himself knowingly to 



JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. 363 

countenance any one in an attempt to commit a 
wrong. 

When brought forward for the appointment of 
chief justice, those opposed to him objected, with at 
least an appearance of truth, that he had every re- 
quisite of a good judge but sound judgment. He 
was not deficient in lesral learnino;, nor was lie be- 
hind the most distinguished ornaments of the bench 
in the most inflexible love of justice and right. He 
thought rapidly, it may be said too rapidly ; indeed 
he often seemed to think aloud, and did not take 
time to mature his opinions. At the circuits he was 
apt to decide hastily ; and when cases argued before 
the full bench were held over, he not infrequently 
drew up two opinions, on opposite sides of the ques- 
tions involved, and it was by no means certain which 
he would himself adopt. Most judges encounter 
doubts, difficulties, and misgivings, alternations of 
opinion, in the steps by which they reach their 
conclusion, and cannot be very safe judges if they 
do not ; because in some cases the line between the 
rights and justice of the two sides is by no means 
distinct, and the legal result depends upon the bal- 
ancing of quite uncertain analogies ; but commonly 
only the final result is seen. In more than one case 
in my own experience that result was reached at last 
in a way quite unexpected at the beginning. In one 
case in which I sat with three other judges, when we 
came to confer we were equally divided, an opinion 
one way having been drawn up by two of the judges, 
while mine, with which one of the judges concurred, 
was directly opposite. After considerable discussion 
the case was laid over until the succeedino; term. 
When we came again to consider it, the leading 



364 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

opinion opposed to mine was abandoned, and finally 
the decision was announced and appears in the official 
report as the unanimous opinion of the court. In a 
much earlier case in which I was counsel, when the 
court consisted of three judges, two of whom agreed 
to a decision against my client, I learned afterwards 
that at the first two of the judges had written opin- 
ions the other way, but finally one of them changed 
his mind and thus changed the result. 

In the case of Cumberland Bank vs, Hann (a Ger- 
man surname corrupted from Hahn), reported in 4 
Harr. 166, I was counsel, and which was first argued 
before the circuit court, the chief justice drew up an 
opinion before he had time to return to his home, 
which was communicated to the counsel, and which 
was very strong for my clients. After his tour of 
circuits was through and he had leisure to look into 
the prior authorities, he recalled his opinion and 
caused the case to be certified to the supreme court, 
and then delivered the opinion as reported, which 
modified quite materially his original opinion, both 
in respect to the final decree and the principles upon 
which it was founded. The faults of the judge were 
indeed the faults of a generous and noble nature. 
He was always anxious to arrive at a right result, and 
if he fell into an error was ever ready, even hasty, 
to repair it. 

I was present at the trial of a case before him at 
the Salem circuit, which showed his disposition very 
plainly. It was an action against a respectable white 
citizen, by a mulatto man, for the alleged seduction 
of his daughter, in which a fee was offered to me in 
behalf of the plaintifi', which I declined. The counsel 
for the plaintiff wa^ incompetent, and in fact was 



JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. 365 

about to leave his case liable to a nonsuit at the be- 
ginning, had not the judge prompted him, and in- 
deed shown a most decided sympathy for the plaintiff, 
occasioned in part by his deep feelings in behalf of 
the colored race. The testimony of the daughter, 
unsupported however, made out a tolerably plausible 
case for the plaintiff; but when two or three witnesses 
had shown her story to be false, he stopped the cause, 
told the parties it was unnecessary to go any farther, 
and advised, almost constrained the plaintiff's counsel 
to submit to a nonsuit. 

The style of Chief Justice Hornblower was remark- 
ably clear and correct, and cannot but be regarded 
with surprise when it is remembered that his early 
education was defective, and that he was obliged to 
confine his reading very much to law books. And he 
wrote with great rapidity and ease. Many of his 
opinions, as reported by Green, Harrison, and Spen- 
cer, are well worthy of diligent perusal, and although 
sometimes deficient in logical precision, and some- 
times apparently written from impulse rather than 
from cool reflection, they often elucidate perplexing 
questions very forcibly. 

As the presiding judge of the courts of oyer and 
terminer in the different counties of the State, he 
sat in several very important cases of murder, and 
conducted them to a very satisfactory result, pre- 
senting the cases to the juries in charges directl}^ to 
the point, and calculated to lead them to the right 
conclusion. This function of a judge is indeed the 
most important of all. Attempts have been some- 
times made to induce the legislature of this State 
to interfere with this high prerogative, and even to 
go so far, as several States have, as to prohibit the 



366 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

judge from closing the case with a direct charge ; but 
hitherto, as it is to be hoped they always may be, 
without success. Under the direction of a competent 
judge the trial by jury, in criminal and in civil cases, 
is of great value ; but left to themselves, or badly in- 
structed, a jury is very often wholly unfit to decide 
a complicated case, and where there is room for par- 
tiality or prejudice is very unsafe. 

In the case of The State vs. Spencer, reported in 1 
Zab. 197, he delivered an opinion on two very im- 
portant and interesting questions, in both of which 
he laid down correct principles, which have had a 
marked and beneficial influence in this State and 
elsewhere. 

The first related to the law of challenges to the 
competency of jurors to serve, who had expressed or 
formed an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the 
party accused. Chief Justice Marshall, perhaps in 
accordance with the previous practice in Virginia, 
upon the trial of Burr for high treason, permitted 
each juror, when he was called, to be asked if he had 
ever formed or expressed an opinion upon the case. 
The first man called answered, " I cannot say that I 
have, since I have been summoned ; before that I 
have in my own mind." He was set aside ; and out of 
the first panel, of whom thirty-eight appeared, only 
four were accepted, and more than a week was con- 
sumed in obtaining a jury. This example was gener- 
ally followed throughout the United States, and pro- 
duced difficulties and delays very injurious to the due 
administration of criminal justice, the evil effects of 
which are still felt in many of the States. The chief 
justice, following to its legitimate results the decision 
of the supreme court, announced by himself in the 



JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. 3G7 

case of Mann, vs Glover, had the courage to go back 
to the true practice, although it was acknowledged 
that the courts in the State had generally followed 
the ruling in Burr's Case. He laid down the law to be, 
as it has been since expressly ruled by a full bencli 
of the supreme court (State vs. Fox, 1 Dutch. 56G), 
that it does not constitute a good cause of challenge 
to a juror, that he has formed and expressed an 
opinion of the guilt of the prisoner founded upon 
his knowledge of the facts, or upon information 
supposed to be true. A declaration of opinion to dis- 
qualify a juror, must be such a one as implies malice 
or ill-will against the prisoner. Chief Justice Green, 
in decidino; this case, — who on several occasions 
overruled the opinions of his predecessor, — referring 
to the decision in the Spencer Case, remarks, "It is 
believed to have met the general approval of the pro- 
fession. While its adoption has avoided much delay 
and embarrassment in the empaneling of juries, it 
has not been found to operate prejudicially to the 
rights of defendants. The most unequivocal proof 
of the truth of this statement is found in the flict 
that, although the rule has been adopted and applied 
on the trial of at least thirty capital cases since its 
adoption in Spencer's Case, and although convictions 
for murder, or for crimes of lower degree, have taken 
place in a large number of these cases, no exception 
has been taken to the rule, nor has the question 
been in any way hitherto presented for consideration 
to this court." 

The other question discussed was the law of in- 
sanity, upon which the defense was rested. On this 
difficult subject his charge was altogether satisfactory, 
except, perhaps, his definition of the crime of murder 



868 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

in the first degree, as distinguished from the crime 
of murder in the second degree, which is not in- 
cluded in the report by Zabriskie, but which has 
been copied into the text-books on this subject, with 
which I have never felt entirely satisfied. He said, 
" The premeditation or intent to kill need not be for 
a day or an hour, nor even for a minute. For if the 
jury believe there was a design and determination to 
kill distinctly formed in the mind at any moment be- 
fore, or at the time the pistol was fired, or the blow 
was struck, it was a willful, deliberate, and premedi- 
tated killing, and therefore murder in the first de-. 
gree." Although I cannot say that if sitting in a 
court of error I should hold that such a charge was so 
erroneous as to require a reversal of the judgment, 
I can say that I was never so w^ell satisfied with it as 
to use such language. I much preferred to say, and 
in several cases of murder did say to the jury, that to 
constitute murder in the first degree the killing must 
have been willful, deliberate, and premeditated, and 
that although the law specified no time during which 
the intention to kill existed, yet the jury ought to be 
satisfied the intention was formed before the act was 
committed which resulted in death. 

The decision in the case of Clark vs. Richards, 3 
Green, 347, concurred in by Judge Ryerson, but from 
which Judge Ford dissented, occasioned much sur- 
prise to the older members of the profession, it having 
been previously understood that the language of the 
ninth and tenth sections of the act for the limitation 
of actions, originally passed in 1799 (Pat. Rev. 353), 
now the tenth and eleventh sections (Nix. Dig., 
4 edit. 512), was too plain to allow any other inter- 
pretation than that all the disabilities named in the 



JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. 369 

statute that existed between the beginning of the ad- 
verse possession and the commencement of the suit, 
must be deducted from the twenty years which barred 
an action. However incorrect as an interpretation of 
the meaning of hinguage, it undoubtedly brought the 
law more in accordance with sound policy. I was my- 
self of counsel in a case where the title of the plain- 
tiff had accrued nearly forty years before the action 
was brought; but she was a widow, who, although 
twice married within the time, had not been without 
a husband more than five years of the whole period. 
She lost her case, but on another point. At one time 
the law as declared in Clark vs. Richards came very 
near being overturned by a decision of the supreme 
court. In a case heard before four of the judges, of 
whom I was one, nearly twenty years afterwards, 
this question was again raised, and the three judges 
associated with me were at first disposed to overrule 
the previous decision. It happened, however, that 
we were all agreed that another point in the case was 
decisive for the defendant, and I strongly urged that 
it was unwise to disquiet titles by questioning a 
decision that had been so long acted upon. This con- 
sideration finally prevailed, so that now, after a lapse 
of thirty-five years, it is not likely that the rule, as 
now understood, will be disturbed. All the judges 
associated with me thought the law ought to be as it 
was held in the case of Clark vs. Richards ; and if 
they had decided that it was otherwise, would have 
joined in taking measures to have the law altered by 
the le<^'-islature. It should be noticed that Judge 
Ryerson and Mr. Griffith were mistaken in supposing 
the original act to have been drawn by Paterson. It 
does not appear in the drafts he left of the acts pre.- 

24 



370 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

pared by him ; before it was passed he had ceased 
to report any new acts. 

Hornblower was one of the members of the con- 
vention to prepare a new constitution in 1844, and 
took an active part in the formation of the instru- 
ment submitted to the people of the State and 
adopted by a hirge majority. They were a select 
body of men, designated in each county so as to rep- 
resent both the political parties, and thus chosen with- 
out a contest. In many respects the constitution 
they framed was a great improvement of the old one ; 
but in many respects it is very defective, so that I 
think it cannot be long; before it will be remodeled. 
The great defect, in my opinion, is the limitation of 
the governor's veto, so that a bare majority can pass 
a law notwithstanding his objections. This departure 
from the provision on this subject in most of the 
state constitutions, as well as in that of the United 
States, was probably occasioned by the fact that Pres- 
ident Tyler had recently vetoed a new charter of the 
United States Bank, and greatly disturbed the busi- 
ness community. But nothing is more apparent than 
that there is little danger of too much checking the 
tendency to over legislate. 

When the second term of the chief justice expired 
in 184C, the power of appointment was vested in the 
governor with the advice and consent of the senate. 
A gentleman agreeing with him in politics filled that 
station, but he declined to nominate him, it was 
currently said, on the ground that in the convention 
of which they were fellow-members, he had shown 
too much disposition to change his opinions. I have 
alwaj^s thought the decision uncalled for, and were it 
not that he selected a very superior man to succeed 



JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER. 371 

him (H. W. Green, who is still living), it would 
probably have been more complained of than it was. 

After the close of his judicial labors, he engaged to 
some extent in business as a lawyer; but younger 
men had taken the lead at the bar, and he did not 
meet with much success. He was, however, by no 
means idle. The College of New Jerse}'' had in 1841 
conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D., and 
in 1847 he was appointed professor of law, with the 
hope that he would take up his residence in Princeton 
and aid in building up a permanent school of law. 
But no adequate salary was attached to the office, 
and although he accepted the appointment, he was 
unwilling to leave the residence in which he had spent 
so many years. He delivered a course of lectures, 
but there was no sufficient encouragement to continue 
them, and he gradually withdrew his attendance, 
and after a few years resigned the office. 

He had been for many years a ruling elder of the 
Presbyterian Church, and during his most busy years 
took an active part in all religious and benevolent 
associations ; was one of the original members of the 
American Bible Society, president of the New Jersey 
Colonization Society, and was president of the New 
Jersey Historical Society from its foundation, besides 
being a member and a liberal contributor to the tract 
and missionary societies. 

He was in politics a Federalist, and afterwards a 
Whig and Republican, and a warm advocate of Mr. 
Clay. His anti-slavery feelings were especially strong, 
and indeed radical. He was one of the convention 
that nominated Fremont, although I believe his pref- 
erence was for Judge McLean, who in all probability 
mio;ht have been elected, but was not radical enough 



372 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

for those who controlled the movement. He was nom- 
inated and chosen one of the presidential electors in 
1820, and president of the electoral college of New 
Jersey who gave their votes for Lincoln and Hamlin. 
In private life Mr. Hornblower was an interesting 
companion, and was very fond of society, disliking 
to be alone. For a time I boarded in the same house 
with him at Trenton, and occasionally we occupied 
the same room at night. He was open and free in 
his communications, often going into details in regard 
to his feelings, which most men scrupulously hide. 
He was not without defects ; but I believe he was an 
humble, sincere, and devoted Christian. He was a 
thoroughly honest and truthful man. He had noth- 
ino^ to conceal : no one could associate much with 
him without becoming acquainted with his inmost 
thou2:hts and feelino-s. He had the misfortune to 
lose the wife of his youth after she had borne him a 
large family of children, most of whom survived him. 
After her death he loved to dwell on her virtues and 
the happiness he had enjoyed with her, and more 
than once I heard him detail the melancholy scenes 
of her death. At a subsequent period he married a 
daughter of Colonel John Kinney, of Morris County, 
with whom he lived most happily, and who soothed 
his declining years with the most tender attention. 
He died in 1864, having passed the eighty-seventh 
year of his age. 

William L. Dayton was a justice of the supreme 
court from 1838 to 1841. He was born near Basking- 
ridge in the County of Somerset, in the year 1807, 
and was thc'son of Joel Dayton, who was the grand- 
son of Jonathan Dayton, a descendant of Kalph 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 373 

Dayton, who came from England to Long Island 
about the year 1650. Jonathan Dayton settled at 
Elizabeth town about the year 1720, and was the 
founder of a family of much distinction in the State, 
his son Elias Dayton being a general during the War 
of the Revolution, and the son of General Dayton, 
Jonathan Dayton, was a member of the convention 
which formed the Constitution of the United States, 
speaker of the house of representatives under that 
constitution, and a member of the senate. William 
L. Dayton's mother was a granddaughter of Edw^ard 
Lewis, a commissary of the American army during 
the Revolution. 

Judge Dayton had his preparatory education in 
the classical academy, so long famous, at Baskingridge, 
then taught by Rev. Dr. Brownlee, a worthy suc- 
cessor of Dr. Finley. He then entered the college 
at Princeton, and graduated in 1825, and was among 
those who, rather slow in acquiring knowledge and 
in maturing their powers, are apt in the end to shoot 
ahead of those more precocious youths who fall 
short of the distinction their school days had seemed 
to promise. His person at this time was unusually 
slender, and his health feeble ; nor did he in after 
life ever acquire robust health, although his person 
became well proportioned, and his general appearance 
dignified and prepossessing. 

He studied law at Somerville with Peter D. Vroom, 
afterwards governor of the State ; and although they 
afterwards occupied prominent situations, on different 
sides, in the antagonistic parties that contested the 
rule of the State, the friendship formed between the 
preceptor and the pupil was never interrupted. 

Mr. Dayton was licensed as an attorney in 1830, 



374 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and as a counselor in 1833. He then selected Free- 
hold in the County of Monmouth as his place of 
business, and continued to reside there until after he 
was made a judge. He very soon won a place among 
those first in the profession. During all his life, 
however, a remark in his address before the college 
societies delivered in 1843, might be applied to him- 
self Urging upon young men the importance of 
self-reliance, he said: "And permit me, in the first 
place, to refer to a principle of our nature antago- 
nistical to the exercise and development of this fac- 
ulty. I mean the vis inertice, of the animal, as op- 
posed to the intellect of the man. It is more pervad- 
ing and controlling in its effects than the vanity of 
our nature will admit." 

He was not, properly speaking, an indolent man ; 
his acquirements in after life forbid any such sup- 
position ; but it always required a great exertion 
to bring the powers of his mind into full exercise. 
Called to argue a cause with a competent associate, 
he would sometimes so entirely rely on him as 
greatly to disappoint his friends. But put him under 
the whip and spur of necessity, and he would prove 
himself possessed of a clear and logical mind, and to 
be full of resources, equal to the successful manage- 
ment of the most difficult case. His cautious modera- 
tion and good sense, always manifest ; his pure morals 
and correct deportment, and his unswerving integrity, 
gave him great weight of character and correspond- 
ing influence. 

Pretty soon after he commenced business as an 
advocate, one of those fortunate opportunities oc- 
curred, which, when well improved, often serve to in- 
troduce a capable lawyer to the notice of the public. 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 375 

It happened that he was retained to defend a well 
known citizen, indicted for an assault and battery, 
whose expected trial before the court of oyer and ter- 
miner, over which Mr. Justice Ryerson presided, ex- 
cited much attention, the prosecution being conducted 
by Mr. Attorney-general White. Mr. Dayton, discov- 
ering that the grand jury had not been duly sum- 
moned and returned, moved to quash the indictment, 
and after a short argument succeeded, the result be- 
ing that all the indictments returned during the term 
were declared illegal. 

" All this was followed," remarks a gentleman who 
was present and communicates the incident, "by a 
buzz through the then little village of Freehold. 
Young Dayton's name was upon everybody's tongue. 
You could hear the exclamations : ' What ! all the 
indictments quashed ? No criminal business this 
term ? That Dayton is sharp ; he knows more than 
we thought;' with sundry similar expressions of com- 
mendation. From that day Mr. Dayton had no lack 
of clients ; he soon became the leading lawyer of the 
place, and prospered rapidly." 

After only a few years' practice as a lawyer, he was 
brought into public life by the whig party, to which 
he belonged. The electoral vote of the State was 
carried for Harrison and Granger, against Van Buren, 
in 1836 ; but not the legislature. But in 1837 the 
Whigs succeeded in electing a majority of the legis- 
lature. 

Mr. Dayton was put at the head of the ticket in 
the County of Monmouth, generally a stronghold of 
the democracy, and all obtaining a majority, he thus 
became a member ojf the legislative council, elected 
for one year. He was placed at the head of the 



376 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

judiciary committee, and became a leading member 
of the legislature. The bar had for years favored 
sucli a change of the judiciary as would supersede 
the old county courts ; but acts introduced for this 
purpose had several times failed. This year the meas- 
ure was recommended by Governor Pennington, and 
a law was passed creating tw^o new judges and con- 
stituting the circuit courts, held by a justice of the 
supreme court alone, courts of original jurisdiction. 
This law was not originally drawn by Mr. Dayton, 
but it underwent his revision, and was advocated by 
him. 

At the adjourned session of the legislature, held 
in February, 1838, John Moore White and William 
Lewis Dayton were elected the new judges, one of 
them from among the old and the other from the 
young members of the bar, Mr. Dayton having been 
a counselor not quite five years. Young as he was, 
his qualifications for the office were not disputed, 
although I think it may be said of him as of Mr. 
Southard, that his true place was not on the bench. 
Highly respectable in that position, he was perhaps 
better fitted for the business of legislation and 
diplomacy. 

Tlie opinions of Judge Dayton, recorded in Harri- 
son's Reports, show him to have been an able judge ; 
and his dignified and popular manners made him 
always acceptable to the bar and to the public. 
Perhaps as good an example of his sound and dis- 
criminating judgment, and of hi,^ faculty to express 
his opinions in a lucid style, will be found in the case 
of Freeholders vs. Strader, 3 Harr. 110, where he es- 
tablished the principle, ever since adhered to, that 
public officers charged with a duty to the public, like 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 377 

tlie board of chosen freeholders in the erection and 
repair of bridges, are not liable to an action by an 
individual for an injury arising from a breach or a 
neglect of that duty. 

He had however occupied a position on the bench 
but a short time before he found that the emoluments 
of the office, then not reaching beyond two thousand 
dollars, were too small to defray comfortably the 
exjDcnse of an increasing family at his new residence 
in Trenton; and it was reasonably certain that his 
gains at the bar would be much greater. He there- 
fore resigned the place at the spring session of 1841, 
and entered again upon the practice of his profession. 

But the death of Mr. Southard the next year, 
opened for him a new career as a senator of the United 
States, to which place he was appointed b}'' the gov- 
ernor in July, 1842, and he was chosen by the legisla- 
ture in October to fill the remaining term, of about 
two years and a half And he was again elected in 
1845 for a full term, so that he was a member of the 
senate nearly nine years. When he entered the sen- 
ate, Tyler was the President, and had soon shown how 
entirely he differed from the party that had elected 
him in regard to at least two important subjects, 
namely, the tariff and the bank, both deemed by the 
Whigs at that time of the highest importance. He 
voted for the tariff then enacted, afterwards so thor- 
oughly changed. At the next session he w^as placed 
on the judiciary committee, of which he remained a 
member during most of the time he was in the sen- 
ate. But he did not make himself very conspicuous 
as a speaker ; indeed, it was only when there was a 
strong pressure upon him, on account of some special 
interest he felt in the question under discussion, that 



378 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

he could be induced to speak at all. After be bad been 
a member more than a year, Mr. Woodbury, secretary 
of the treasury under Jackson, and afterwards one of 
the justices of the supreme court of the United States, 
who had himself recently returned to the senate, and 
with whom I was intimate, asked me why New Jersey 
did not send abler men to the senate. I replied that in 
my opinion we were represented then by two of our 
best men. althousrh thev differed from me and him in 
politics. The truth was that Mr. Dayton was superior 
to Woodbury himself, who was distinguished for very 
little but great industry and honesty of purpose. 

The first speech made by Dayton was in February, 
1843, in defense of the character and credit of the 
government, then suffering at home and abroad, from 
the fliilure of several States to pay the interest on 
their debt^. The subject of these debts being before 
the senate, he offered a resolution, '• That the distrust 
and obloquy cast upon the federal government, by 
reason of the failure of certain States to make prompt 
payment of their debts, was an unjust and unfounded 
imputation upon its credit and good faith; that while 
this government deplored the misguided policy of 
those States, it disclaimed all liability for such de- 
linquency; and in vindication of its own unblemished 
faith and honor, it appealed with confidence to its 
history." One object he had in view seems to have 
been to discountenance the idea of the general govern- 
ment interfering in any way with the state debts, 
by assuming, even indirectly, any responsibility in 
regard to them ; and the other was, to vindicate the 
faith and credit of that government as above suspicion. 
He said : " Sir, there i.>? no government in the world 
whose credit ou2:ht to stand his/her than that of these 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 379 

LFnited States. There has none, not one, acted with 
a faith more pure. Not a man of the Old World, 
or the New, has lost a dollar by its promises." And 
then, after enumerating the immense debts of the 
European governments, he said : " With these budgets 
of iniquity on their backs (fruits of rapine and war), 
they stagger along like the old sinner in Bunyan's 
allegory ; reading homilies to us, doubting whether 
we can follow. We, in lusty youth, carrying the 
weig^ht of a thistle-down, and with an inheritance 
stretchinsc from sea to sea." 

Many democratic politicians have advocated the 
erroneous doctrine, that inasmuch as the state legis- 
latures are intrusted with the duty of electing the 
senators, they are entitled to consider them as their 
representatives, and to instruct them how to vote 
upon any particular measure ; and in many cases, 
when it was supposed some favorite object could 
thereby be effected, the other party have adopted the 
same principle. Early in his service Mr. Dayton re- 
pudiated this doctrine in very decided terms, and 
stated the fact that when himself a member of the 
New Jersey legislature, he had refused to vote for re- 
solutions instructing General Wall. He said: '-If the 
legislature of New Jersey go farther than to advise 
me of their wishes, — to communicate what they 
believe to be the sentiments of our common constitu- 
ents, — they usurp a power which does not belong to 
them. Firmly, and yet respectfully, I shall repel 
every attempt to encroach in this or any other form 
upon my constitutional rights." 

Upon the tariff question, then as now so seriously 
disputed, and upon which our best and wisest states- 
men seem so widely to differ, looking at it as they 



380 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

necessarily clo from such different stand-points, he 
took sides very decidedly with those who insist upon 
a strong protective tariff This indeed is considered 
by most Jersey men so entirely in accordance with 
their interests, that in the spring of 1844, when I 
represented the first district, comprising South Jersey, 
although from careful study fally convinced that it 
is a great error, I felt constrained to move to lay on 
the table the bill materially altering the whig tariff 
of 1842, and thus to defeat it. The result was, that 
the next Congress passed the act of 1846, far more 
materially reducing the duties than had been at- 
tempted in 1844. 

Mr. Dayton made several speeches during the 
presidency of Tyler and Polk, which began to attract 
attention to him as a rising statesman. He of course 
opposed the tariff of 1846, which passed the senate 
only by the casting vote of Vice-President Dallas. 
In this speech, he had sjDCcial reference to the manu- 
facture of glass, then and now largely carried on in 
South Jersey. A circumstance occurred to myself 
in this connection which it may be worth while to 
/mention, because I think it shows how a present in- 
I terest, real or supposed, is usually allowed to prevail 
'- over a prospective good. One of the most intelligent 
and successful glass manufacturers in my district, 
who resided in Philadelphia, and was a very decided 
Whig in politics, had told me in conversation, that 
he had carefully examined the whole subject in ref- 
erence to glass, and was entirely satisfied that the 
duty imposed by the tariff of 1842 was too high, and 
that the business would, on the average, be more 
prosperous if it was reduced, for which he gave me 
reasons I thought entirely satisfactory. When the 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 881 

amendment proposed in 1844 was before Congress 
I wrote to him, requesting the views he had com- 
municated to me verbally to be put in writing. The 
reply was that although his individual opinion re- 
mained unchanged, his partners were of a different 
opinion, and he therefore preferred not to interfere. 

Although he agreed with his political friends in 
thinking the administration of Polk had unneces- 
sarily provoked the war with Mexico, he voted for 
the required supply of men and money. The course 
of the executive in ordering the army under General 
Taylor to take a threatening position, which in some 
quarters has been referred to as precedents for the 
recent course of President Grant in reference to San 
Domingo, he denounced as the " gross unconstitu- 
tionality of his conduct in making war upon Mexico 
without the consent of Congress, which is by the 
constitution the war-making power." He also advo- 
cated the Wilmot Proviso, designed to prevent the 
extension of slavery into free territory and thus the 
increase of the number of slave States. But he was 
careful for himself and his constituents to disclaim 
any intention or desire to question or impair the 
rights of the South. 

But the policy and speech in sustaining it, which 
attra,cted the most attention, and in fact made him 
afterwards a political leader, was the taking ground 
in the secret session of the senate, in opposition to 
Mr. Webster and most of the old Whigs, for the rati- 
fication of the treaty with Mexico, approved by the 
administration. The opposition to it arose princi- 
pally from the fact that it included a cession of Mex- 
ican territory, the New England States being always, 
from the time Lousiana was purchased to this day. 



382 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

opposed to any acquisition of new territory at the 
South or West. 

Mr. Webster took an early opportunity of denounc- 
ing the treaty in open senate. Mr. Dayton took the 
lead in answer to him, and among other pertinent re- 
marks, said : — 

"I am, for one, prepared to meet the responsibilit}'' involved iu 
the ratification of that treaty ; and after the speech of the distin- 
guished senator from Massachusetts, read as it has been in every 
town, village, and hamlet of my State, I feel, as others similarly cir- 
cumstanced must feel the necessity of a reply. I am here to an- 
swer. I here and now declare to my constituents and to the world, 
as I understand I have a right to declare, my own action upon that 
subject. I here then declare, that in this chamber and out of it, in 
official debate and by private appeal, in every mode, and by every 
legitimate means that I could bring to bear, I endeavored to sus- 
tain and enforce the ratification of that treaty. And I say, further- 
more, if it be of the slightest interest to my constituents to know it, 
that while its fate was yet in doubt, I first broke ground in its favor, 
on this side of the chamber ; for all which I am ready to meet the 
responsibility which that position demands. 

" 1 will not defend this treaty as a mere matter of bargain. I care 
not whether the senator from Massachusetts be right or wrong in the 
view which he has taken of this as a matter of bargain. I care not 
whether New Mexico be near to us or far from us ; I care not how 
isolated may be its position ; I care not though her plains be barren, 
though her hills be desolate, though every drop of water which 
trickles from her mountains be lost in her sands ; I care not whether 
* grass grows or water runs,' whether there be there ' beasts of the 
field, or fowls of the air, or any creeping thing ; ' not any or all of 
these considerations have controlled my action on this subject. Ifi 
some respects, indeed, I do not know but fewer evils will grow out 
of this accession of territory, if it be the miserable and worthless 
thing that the senator has represented it, than if it were a good fer- 
tile country, inviting speedy settlement. But we do at least get 
something by the treaty. The administration get the ports of San 
Francisco and San Diego. They are at least of some value. The 
administration has surely the ' fifteen pence in pocket,' and for tak- 
ing this little value, they are entitled to FalstafF's apology ; ' Reason, 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 383 

you rogues, reason. Think'st thou I'll endanger my soul gratis ! ' 
But as a mere matter of bargain, something had for something 
paid, I care not though the thing be as miserable and contemptible 
as the senator describes it. The value of the country never seriously 
entered into my consideration as an element in the decision of the 
question." 

After showing tHat the treaty afforded the only 
means of obtaining peace, he proceeded to discuss the 
policy of bringing more States into the Union, es- 
pecially in reference to its bearing on the success of the 
Whigs as a party, and broke out with the question : — 

" Are we. Bourbon like, to forget nothing, to learn nothing ? Can 
we resist the conviction that what ' Oregon and Texas,' was in 1844. 
' California and New Mexico ' will become in 1848, only doubled, 
quadrupled in power ? 

" The senator could not do otherwise than resist. He had in 
times past committed himself so far upon this question against ter- 
ritory, that he was hardly at liberty to weigh alternatives. But is 
it so with us all ? Is the great whig party so fully, so fatally com- 
mitted upon this question ? Must we stand fast upon — 

' This nan-ow ledge, <a yawning 
Gulf below, a trembling torrent from above. 
Can we not move ? ' 

Are we spell-bound. Could I believe that the power to acquire 
territory was yet an open question, and that the constitution clearly 
forbade it, though the heavens darkened over my head, and the earth 
trembled beneath my feet, there would I stand, stand with the sen- 
ator, stand with the constitution : 

' Sliield it, save it, or perish there too.' 

" But I deny that it is so. If doubt ever existed, the past has 
settled it. One half of our country has become our country, in 
spite of such doubt. I feel that this is a question to be tried accord- 
ing to its effects and consequences ; and by my best judgment, aided 
by the best light that I can obtain, I am persuaded that the alter- 
native of the line offered with present peace, is better than war for 
a year, with the chance of peace at its close and no territory. This 
conviction I declare, with the utmost respect for the distinguished 
senator from Massachusetts, and all others who may diifer from me. 



384 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

I hold that upon the issue which they would make up, — no peace 
unless without territory, — the whig party cannot survive the year. 
It will go down to the grave, and all its conservative principles will 
go down to the grave along with it ; with some ' wise saw ' upon 
its lips, it will die, doubtless, ' the death of the righteous,' ' rejoicing 
in the hope of a glorious resurrection ? ' Its enemies yonder will 
give it a kingly epitaph : Hie jacet ! 

' I never said a foolish thing, 
And never did a wise one.' " 

I have quoted so much of this speech, because it 
not only brought Mr. Dayton before the country in 
a much more prominent position than he before held, 
but because it was the first indication of a new 
change in the political affinities of those who had be- 
fore been regarded as the leaders of the Whigs. By 
the aid of General Taylor's great popularity, produced 
by his victories and by the admirable official reports 
of them, written, as was afterwards understood, by his 
son-in-law, the whig party in the ensuing fall carried 
the presidential election by large majorities. Mr. Clay 
as well as Mr. Webster were then thrown out of po- 
sition, and greatly disgusted. The cabinet selected 
by Taylor, himself a slaveholder and a Southerner, 
showed unmistakable signs of opposition to the plans 
of the Southerners; and had he lived through the 
term of office for which he had been elected, the op- 
position, of which Mr. Dayton was a part, would in 
all probability have increased in strength and influ- 
ence. But his early death changed this tendency 
and turned the current the other way. Mr. Fillmore, 
who had been put on the ticket with Taylor as a coun- 
terpoise to his supposed pro-slavery proclivities, and 
was indeed classed among the abolitionists, sympa- 
thized with Clay and Webster and their supporters, 
and as soon as he was elevated to the presidential 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 385 

chair forraecl a new cabinet, of which Mr. Webster 
as secretary of state was the head, all of whom were 
far more disposed to conciliate the South than their 
predecessors had been, and of whom I think no one 
afterwards joined the republican party. Mr. Clay re- 
mained in the senate, the su]3porter of this admin- 
istration, but died early in 1852, as did also Mr. 
Webster later in the same year. Mr. Calhoun died 
in 1850, two or three months before the death of 
Taylor. 

Mr. Dayton's term expired in March, 1851, and the 
Democrats then having a majority in the legislature 
of New Jersey, he was succeeded by Commodore Rob- 
erts F. Stockton, and resumed his profession as a 
lawyer. In June, 1856, the convention for the selec- 
tion of a presidential candidate, which met at Phila- 
delphia, and assumed for its party the name " Repub- 
lican," nominated John C. Fremont for president, re- 
jecting Judge McLean as not a sufficiently decided 
abolitionist, although it was well known he w^ould 
have had the support of the great body of the Whigs, 
and would probably have been elected. Mr. Dayton 
was nominated by five hundred and twenty-nine out 
of five hundred and sixty votes, as their candidate for 
vice-president. It is said, and I suppose truly, that he 
had no intimation of such a purpose until after the 
nomination was made. He was no doubt selected for 
the same reasons that prevailed when Tyler was put 
on the ticket with Harrison, and which afterwards 
induced the selection of vice-presidents known to en- 
tertain opinions on many important subjects, very 
different from those of the great majority of the 
party ; but agreeing with them in some overruling 
question. Mr. Dayton was no abolitionist, but had 

25 



386 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

been a supporter of the American colonization society, 
always fiercely assailed by the leading spirits of the 
party that nominated Fremont. He had in the senate 
opposed the extension of slavery into the new terri- 
tories and states, and the fugitive slave law ; but for 
himself and his constituents he disclaimed any inten- 
tion or desire to question or impair the rights of the 
South. When his opposition to the extension of sla- 
very was declared by Mr. Calhoun to be " an aggres- 
sive policy," he replied, " Aggressive upon what ? 
Sir, asccrression consists in attack ; an effort to change, 
to violate an existing state of things." 

The result was, that a large proportion of the 
Whigs, as well in New Jersey as elsewhere, refused to 
unite with the Republicans in supporting Fremont. 
Many of Mr. Dayton's warm friends belonged to this 
party, and without abating their attachment to him, 
but declaring their willingness to support the ticket 
if it could be turned upside down, voted for Fillmore, 
nominated as the candidate of the Native American 
party. Buchanan was elected President, and re- 
ceived the vote of New Jersey. Most of the Whigs 
who voted for Fillmore afterwards supported Lincoln, 
and thus became identified with the republican party; 
while a considerable number are now Democrats. 

In the spring of 1857 Mr. Dayton was nominated 
by Governor New^ell, and confirmed, attorney-general 
of the State, holding the office four years, and resign- 
ing it when appointed minister to France. This of- 
fice had been recently put on the more respectable 
footing of a salary, and freed from the duty of pros- 
ecuting criminals in the counties, except when in 
cases of homicide, and other high crimes, he should 
be requested to do so by a justice of the supreme 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 387 

court, and for this service to receive an extra com- 
pensation. The services of Mr. Dayton as attorney- 
general were highly appreciated by all who had any 
knowledge of them. He was especially distinguished 
in the prosecution of Donnelly for murder, the first 
year of his appointment. 

The murder of Albert S. Moses by James P. Don- 
nelly, at the " Sea-view House," a place of summer 
resort on the sea-shore, in the County of Monmouth, 
on the first day of August, 1857, was a remarkable 
crime ; and the trial, conviction, subsequent proceed- 
ings, and final execution of the criminal were all of 
extraordinary interest. The accused was a young man 
of good education and prepossessing manners, who 
was employed as a clerk, and who had lost money by 
playing cards with Moses, a fellow-clerk, and stabbed 
him in his bed to get possession of the money, which 
had been placed by Moses in his bed, between the 
mattresses. The evidence of the criminal's o-uilt was 

o , 

entirely satisfactory, and the trial before Justice Yre- 
denburgh in the court of oyer and terminer resulted 
in a verdict of guilty. 

No pains or expense were spared by the father and 
friends of Donnelly to prevent his conviction, and, after 
the verdict and judgment against him in the oyer, to 
obtain a reversal by means of writs of error to the su- 
preme court, and from the judgment of that court to 
the court of errors and appeals, and finally by endeav- 
oring to procure a pardon, all of which failed. The 
case is reported in 2d Dutcher, 463 and 601. Gov- 
ernor Pennington, J. P. Bradley, now one of the jus- 
tices of the supreme court, and Joseph Warren Scott 
(his last appearance at the bar) were retained for the 
defense, and spared no pains to succeed. In the course 



388 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of the various proceedings many arguments of the 
questions raised, some of which were not only im- 
portant, but new, took place, in all of whicli the at- 
torney-general acquitted himself entirely to the satis- 
faction of those who heard him. His eloquence on the 
trial before the jury has always been spoken of as in 
the highest degree impressive and convincing; and 
his arguments before the courts were dignified, able, 
and successful. 

When the party opposed to the administration of 
Mr. Buchanan had succeeded in electing a majority of 
the members of the legislature in the fall of 1858? 
and it fell to them to elect a senator, it was expected 
by many that Mr. Dayton would be the man ; but he 
publicly declined the appointment. 

When Lincoln was nominated for the presidency 
in 1860, instead of Mr. Seward, who seemed to be 
then the choice of the more advanced Republicans, 
the greater part of the Fillmore men in New Jersey 
joined in his support, and Mr. Dayton heartily co- 
operated with them. Upon the election of Lincoln, 
his friends thought him fairly entitled to a seat in his 
cabinet, and I have been furnished with the particu- 
lars of an interview with the President by Judge 
Nixon, one of the parties to it, which I give without 
alteration. ^ 

" It was well known in Washington that President 
Lincoln entertained a high opinion of the character, 
abilities, and public services of Mr. Dayton, and that 
if he had been permitted to exercise his own judg- 
ment, he would have given him a prominent position 
in his cabinet. A day a two after the abrupt en- 
trance of the President elect into Washington, in the 
month of February, 1861, the republican delegation 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 389 

in Congress from New Jersey had, by appointment, a 
formal interview with him at his rooms in Willard's 
Hotel, to urge upon him a suitable recognition of Mr. 
Dayton in the formation of his cabinet. Senator Ten 
Eyck was made the spokesman of the delegation, 
and he opened the subject with a somewhat elaborate 
statement of the worth, talents, and party claims 
of the distinguished Jerseyman. Mr. Lincoln's reply 
was prompt and characteristically candid. ' It is not 
necessary,' he said, ' to speak to me in praise of Mr. 
Dayton ; I have known him since we served in the 
different houses of Congress, at the same time, and 
there is no public man for whose character I have 
a higher admiration. When the telegraphic wires 
brought to Springfield the news of my election, my 
first thought was, that I would have him associated 
with me in council, and would make him secretary 
of state. But New York is a great State, and Mr. 
Seward has many friends, and I was compelled by the 
pressure upon me to give up the thought. I then 
desired to arrange for him some other cabinet posi- 
tion, commensurate with his abilities; but Pennsyl- 
vania — another great State, you know — was bound 
to have a place for Mr. Cameron, and I again reluc- 
tantly yielded. I then said to myself, Mr. Dayton 
deserves the best place abroad, and I will send him 
to the court of St. James. But New England pressed 
her claims for notice, and united upon Mr. Adams, 
and I w^as driven from that purpose. I then thought 
of the French mission, and wondered if that would 
not suit him. I have put my foot down now, and will 
not be moved. I shall offer that place to Mr. Dayton, 
and hope it will prove satisfactory to him and his 
friends.' 



390 EEmNISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

"The interview here ended, and although it was gen- 
erally understood that the President was surrounded 
by influences hostile to Mr. Dayton, and jealous of 
his recognition and advancement, yet he adhered to 
his resolution, and offered to him the mission to 
France, which, after some hesitation, he accepted." 

Among those not in favor of the appointment of 
Mr. Dayton, it was well understood, must he reckoned 
Mr. Seward, the secretary of state. 

Notwithstanding his ignorance of the French lan- 
guage, which to many seemed a great objection, I 
doubt if a better man for the place could have been 
found in the country. The manner in which he ful- 
filled the difficult duty unexpectedly devolved upon 
him, proved his peculiar fitness for it. Under ordi- 
nary circumstances, our ministers in foreign courts are 
simply conveniences for such of our citizens as travel 
or reside abroad, and require only to be polished gen- 
tlemen, acceptable to those in power, and ready to 
serve as a sort of heralds to those who call upon 
them, to introduce them, or to aid them in prosecut- 
ino; their business. But it was far different at a time 
when it was certain that our country was about to 
be involved in a great civil war, in the conducting 
of which there was every reason to believe those 
who had arrayed themselves against the government 
would leave no means untried to obtain countenance, 
if not direct aid, from the governments of France and 
England, believed to be quite willing to see us divided. 

Mr. Dayton was not only unable tO speak French, 
but he was without the slightest experience of tl^e 
customary etiquette of an ambassador, or of the 
habits of an imperial court. But so far from these 
seeming deficiencies being impediments, there is much 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 391 

reason to believe, that by leaving his good sense, 
straightforward honesty, and ready tact untram- 
meled by devotion to mere forms, they were made 
to be aids rather than hindrances in the work he had 
to perform. One of the first questions he had to 
decide upon his arrival in- France was, whether he 
would accede to the urgent request of one of our old 
diplomatic agents abroad, to wear a plain citizen's 
dress, and reject the court dress, known to be espe- 
cially desired by the Emperor's oflftcers, if not by 
himself; this being a matter left to the discretion 
of the minister. His prompt answer to this request 
w^as " that he had not come to France to make a 
point with the government about buttons." He ac- 
cordingly arrayed himself in the prescribed costume, 
and, probably for the first time in his life, wore a 
sword, and so managed his deportment and his pres- 
entation address as to make a most favorable im- 
pression on the Emperor and Empress, and the whole 
court ; although he was accustomed afterwards (as 
I learned from Mr. Dudley) to amuse his friends by 
a ludicrous account of his difficulties in managing the 
unaccustomed weapon, especially when required to 
retire from the imperial presence. 

In one of his dispatches to the secretary of state, 
written about a year after his mission commenced, he 
writes : " I feel much gratified with the full satisfaction 
wdiich you, in your own behalf and in behalf of the 
President, have expressed with my conduct in this 
mission. Certainly if I have in any respect failed, it 
has not been for want of proper attention and care. 
Indeed I am not now aware that anything could have 
been done here usefully, which has not been done. 
There is a certain class of people who seem to 



392 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

think diplomacy consists in mousing out and report- 
ing small matters, having really no kind of weight 
in settling international relations. I have not troub- 
led you with these things, and I am glad of it." 

Wholly regardless of the daily tittle-tattle of Paris, 
he bent his efforts to induce the French government 
to withdraw their recoocnition of belliorerent rio-hts in 
the Southern Confederacy or at least to remain neu- 
tral. Althouo-h oblio-ed to converse with M. Thou- 
venel, the minister of foreign affairs, through the 
medium of an interpreter, he secured his good-will 
and full confidence. When he was superseded by M. 
Drouin de I'Huys, in the fall of 1862, he writes : — 

" I regret the retirement of M. Thouvenel from the foreign de- 
partment. We lose a friend at an important point. What may be 
the views of Monsieur Drouin de I'Huys, respecting our affairs I do 
not know. He is a gentleman of the highest character, and is univer- 
sally recognized as one of the ablest statesmen of France. I should 
add that he has served as minister of France in ' England, is well 
known to the statesmen of that country, and speaks the language 
with ease and fluency. I have the pleasure of an acquaintance with 
him, and have no doubt that our personal relations will be entirely 
agreeable. His perfect knowledge of our language will, to a certain 
extent, facilitate our official intercourse." 

Some extracts from a dispatch to Mr. Seward dated 
March 25, 1862, will afford some means of judging 
what influences he had to contend with. The Emperor, 
it will be remembered, spoke English. 

" The Emperor, without application on my part, by a note from 
his chamberlain, signified to me that he would receive me to-day. 
Of course I availed myself of the opportunity, and have just re- 
turned from this personal interview. I was most kindly received, 
and he said at once that he had wished to have a talk with me about 
cotton, and the prospect of opening our ports, etc., etc. I told him 
we honestly believed that if a proclamation by France and England, 
withdrawing belligerent rights from the insurrectionists, should ba 
made, the insurrection would collapse at once ; that it was the moral 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 393 

support only which that concession had given them that had sus- 
tained them so far ; that they had always looked to it as a first step 
towards their final recognition as an independent power. K the 
concession were withdrawn, I believed, as an equivalent, the block- 
ade would be raised at an early day. He said the concession of 
belligerent rights was made upon an understanding with England ; 
that some legal questions were involved in it originally, and that he 
would have to speak to M. Thouvenel about them. When the 
hisurrection broke out, and this concession was made, he did not 
suppose the North would succeed ; that it was the general belief of 
statesmen in Europe that the two sections would never come together 
again. This belief, he intimated, was a principal reason why this 
concession of belligerent rights was then granted." 

In this same conversation, the Emperor stated 
that petitions and memorials were being daily pre- 
sented to him on the subject of a supply of cotton 
for the manufacturers, the suffering and destitution, 
in certain parts of France for want of it, being con- 
stantly on the increase. It was well known that the 
Confederate government had very large quantities 
of this material at its disposal, if the way could only 
be open to procure it. Indeed it was currently re- 
ported and believed, that overtures were made per- 
sonally to the Due de Persigny, one of Napoleon's 
ministers, and very influential with him, offering him 
many thousand bales if he could secure from the 
French government encouragement and aid for the 
South. And besides this desire for cotton, the en- 
tanglement of the Emperor with the Mexican project 
rendered him disposed to desire the disruption of 
our Union, since the success of the North would 
necessarily involve the necessity of recalling the 
French troops. 

Paris was the head- quarters of the southern agents 
and their friends. SUdell made it his permanent res- 
idence, and established influential connections there ; 



394 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Mason was a frequent visitor ; and the city swarmed 
with Southerners and their families. Every effort 
that ingenuity and skill could devise, was of course 
made to induce the government to recognize the Con- 
federation ; and when it is understood that the Eng- 
lish government was more than once prepared to do 
that if France would concur, the constant demand 
on the vigilance of the American minister may be 
understood. This vigilance never relaxed ; but it 
showed itself only in a calm and deliberate use of 
reason and common sense. I have been informed by 
one of his fimily, that during the whole time, although 
he had previously known Mr. Slidell, they were never 
face to fice, in private or in public. If the Emperor 
saw Slidell, it was privately and secretly. 

A great service which he rendered was the pre- 
venting, by urgent remonstrances, of the carrying 
into effect contracts entered into by the Confederates 
with French shipbuilders, to construct and furnish six 
vessels, two of which at least were to be iron-clad 
rams, and the others privateers. This was accom- 
plished with great difficulty, but the government 
yielded to his demands. Had these vessels escaped, 
as did the Alabama, not a vestige of our commerce 
could have remained on the sea. And when the Ala- 
bama entered the harbor of Cherbourg, he immedi- 
ately notified Captain Winslow, in command of the 
Kearsarge, to cruise in the Channel, and by his ear- 
nest protests and his influence, induced the French 
government to order the Alabama to leave as soon as 
she had made the necessary repairs, and had procured 
coals and provisions. This order Captain Semmes 
found himself obliged to respect, and in doing so, and 
not to seek a fool-hardy combat, it is believed, met 



WILLIAM L. DAYTON. 



39^ 



the destruction of his ship, which was sunk after an 
hour's fight. 

A letter kindly addressed to me by Thomas H. 
Dudley, our efficient consul at Liverpool, a life-long 
friend, who was a short time, during Mr. Dayton's 
first year in Paris, the vice-consul there, and had 
afterwards the best opportunities of knowing the true 
state of affairs, enables us to appreciate the character 
of Mr. Dayton, and to understand the extent of the 
influence he was enabled to exert. He says : — 

" I ouly saw him occasionally. When with him, he was in the 
habit of speaking very fully with me about himself and about jjub- 
lic affairs, and especiallj' matters relating to his own legation. I 
always understood from him that the English government made two 
distinct and direct proposals to the French government to recognize 
the Confederacy. He told me this at the time, and 1 have no doubt 
about its being correct. 

"I was informed by many persons, and from different sources, 
that the Emperor not merely entertained the highest respect and re- 
gard for Mr. Dayton, but that he was in the habit of making this 
remark to those about him whenever he was perplexed or in doubt 
about what was taking place : ' Go to Mr. Dayton and you will be 
sure to get the truth from him ; I can always depend upon what he 
tells me.' 

" I am also aware of the fact that Mr. Dayton was not only de- 
pended upon by our representatives abroad, but tljat they were in the 
habit of advising with him about all public matters. He seemed to 
be a nucleus around whom they gathered. We certainly never had 
a representative of our government in Europe who conducted the 
office with more ability and dignity, and who commanded more re- 
spect and esteem." 

Mr. Dayton died quite suddenly at Paris, from an 
attack of apoplexy, December 1, 1864; before the 
surrender of the Confederate armies, but not until the 
overthrow of the rebellion had become apparent, and 
after he had brought to a satisfactory termination all 
the questions discussed between the governments of 



396 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

the United States and France, and had succeeded in 
preventing the Confederate agents from procuring 
vessels of war to be built at Bordeaux and Nantes. 
Funeral services were held in the American chapel, 
at which, besides the usual religious exercises, and a 
sermon by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Sunderland, Mr. Big- 
elow, the American consul, and subsequently our min- 
ister to France, delivered a short address, expressing 
his great regard for Mr. Dayton, and his sorrow for 
his death. 

Among other very appropriate remarks he said : — 

" Measured by its years, his life seems to have been brought to a 
premature close. But measured by its results, Mr. Dayton was an 
old man. At the early age of thirty-five, as we have already been told 
by our pastor, and when most men are content to begin their public 
career, he was already clothed with the highest legislative honors of 
the Republic. After an almost uninterrupted term of honorable 
service of twenty-two years, death overtook him in the discharge of 
what, under existing circumstances, deserved, perhaps, to be re- 
garded as the most dignified political trust, save one, which his 
country could confer. Men have lived more years, some have 
achieved greater distinctions ; but what man was ever born with an 
ambition so extravagant that, looking back from the end of the 
longest life upon such results, would not feel that, so far as public 
honors are a test, he had filled the measure of his own, as well as of 
his country's utmost expectations ? " 

Professor Laboulaye, of the French Institute, fol- 
lowed with some equally striking remarks in French. 
He said : — 

" n sut maintenir les relations des deux pays, sur le meilleur pied, 
a des conditions egales, c'est h dire, egalement honorables pour les 
deux pays. C'est la un service rendu a la France, non moins qu'a 
I'Am^rique et qui gardera dans Tavenir le nom de M. Dayton." 

Edward W. Whelpley was one of the justices of 
the supreme court two years and four months, and 



EDWARD W. WHELPLEY. 397 

chief justice a little more than three years. He was 
born in 1818, and was the son of Dr. William Whelp- 
ley, of Morristown, a physician of talent and high 
repute, and his mother was a Miss Dodd, of a family 
which, for several generations, were remarkable for 
mathematical taste and talent. His father died when 
he was ten years old. After the usual preparatory 
schooling at Morristown, in a school at one time 
taught by his grandfather, he entered Princeton Col- 
lege, and graduated in 1834, before he had attained 
the age of seventeen. Afterwards he taught a school 
about two years, and then entered the office of his 
uncle Amzi Dodd, at Newark, completing his studies 
with Amzi Armstrong. He was licensed as an at- 
torney in 1839, and as a counselor in 1842. After 
a short residence as an attorney in Newark, he re- 
moved to Morristown, where he married, and resided 
during his life, and became a partner in business with 
Jacob W. Miller, who, having been elected to the 
senate of the United States, soon left the burden of 
his business to Whelpley. In 1847 he was elected 
a member of the legislature, and again in 1848, and 
was this year speaker of the Assembly. 

Until I became myself a judge in 1852, 1 knew but 
little of his standing. I then found him having a 
leading position as an advocate. His arguments at 
the bar of the supreme court, and in the court of er- 
rors were fine specimens of legal learning and acu- 
men ; and sometimes, when on the wrong side, not a 
little perplexing. In the case of Den vs. Young, re- 
ported in 3 Zab. 478, and 4 Zab. 775, he persuade(? 
five out of the six special judges of the court of er- 
rors, neither of whom were educated lawyers, to re- 
verse the decision of judges learned in the law, upon 



398 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

a question involving the law of real estate ; this being, 
I believe, the only case which has occurred wherein 
those judges have so ventured to decide, without the 
countenance of even a single legally educated judge. It 
was, however, a case where, to a common mind, justice 
seemed to be best administered by this final decision ; 
and thus the very object intended to be obtained by 
the constitution of a court with so many judges with- 
out legal learning, namely, that the supposed real 
equity should prevail against merely technical difficul- 
ties, was effected. The argument that prevailed, how- 
ever, as will appear by an examination of the opinions 
delivered, was of itself, although unsound, perfectly 
technical; and was the best the case admitted. It 
was in fact drawn up, at the request of the judge, in 
conformity with the ascertained wishes of a majority, 
by the counsel himself; and fortunately no settled 
principles of law were so much interfered with as to 
make a dangerous precedent; which, I am afraid, is 
more than can be said for some other decisions of the 
same court, which had the concurrence of one or more 
learned judges. 

I may take this opportunity of stating, in regard to 
the court of errors, unfortunately as I think it is con- 
stituted, — for if there were no other objections, it is 
too numerous, — that after an experience of nearly fif- 
teen years as a member of it there has been no time 
when there was any reason to question its entire in- 
tegrity. It cannot be said of any tribunal ever con- 
stituted on the earth, that the judges were entirely 
free from the bias of prepossessions or of party or 
personal prejudices ; but I can with truth say that I 
have never seen reason to believe that any case was 
decided through any corrupt motive. Merelj^ partj 



EDWARD W. WHELPLEY. 399 

prejudices have seldom been in the least degree per- 
ceptible. Chief Justice Marshall did show much 
party feeling in the case of Marbury vs. Madison, 
and in some other cases ; and Chief Justice Taney 
showed a similar bias in the Dred Scott case ; but they 
were both excellent men and able iudo-es. In re2:ard 
to the latter, I may state that Mr. Southard, who was 
much prejudiced against him by his course in ref- 
erence to the removal of the deposits from the Bank 
of the United States, and who certainly was a very 
competent judge, said to me after he had read his 
opinion in the case of Bank of Augusta vs. Earle, 13 
Pet. R. 586, that he withdrew his objections to this 
appointment, and was satisfied that he was a fit 
successor of Marshall. And I think no fair minded 
lawyer can carefully read his dissenting opinion in 
the case of Taylor vs. Caryl, 20 How. R. 600, without 
perceiving that he was a most able judge, and re- 
tained his fliculties, even after he had passed his 
eightieth year. 

Martin Ryerson, who had been appointed justice 
of the supreme court in 1865, was compelled by ill 
health to resign in 1868, and Mr. Whelpley was se- 
lected by Governor Newell to succeed him. Up to 
1855, the supreme court had consisted of five jus- 
tices ; but in this year an act was passed adding two 
more, constituting seven judicial districts, and provid- 
ing that the justice assigned to a district should be ex 
officio president judge of the courts of common pleas, 
general quarter sessions of the peace, and orphans' 
courts, held in said district. The understanding was, 
that one Democrat and one Whig \\40uld be ap- 
pointed, and accordingly Governor Price appointed 
Ryerson, a Democrat, and Peter Vredenburgh, a Whig, 



400 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

both of whom are still living, the latter having held 
the office fourteen years. 

The great object of this change in the judiciary 
system of the State undoubtedly was, to bring the 
important business transacted in the inferior courts 
under the control of a judge well instructed in the 
law. It has been a most beneficial change, especially 
where the justice of the supreme court presides, not 
only in the orphans' court, but in the court hearing 
appeals from the court for the trial of small causes. 

When Chief Justice Green was appointed chan- 
cellor in 1861, Whelpley was appointed to succeed 
him; and it maybe remarked that every chief jus- 
tice of the supreme court, since the death of Kinsey, 
has been a graduate of Princeton, except Hornblower, 
and all have been Presbyterians, except Chief Justice 
Beasley. It cannot be said that "Whelpley was in all 
respects equal to his predecessor; but he was an 
able lawyer, of sound judgment, and, had his life 
been spared, he bid fair to earn a high reputation. 
He was thoroughly grounded in the doctrines of the 
common law, and in the case of Adams vs. Ross, 1 
Vroom, 507, took great satisfaction in reaffirming the 
ancient and well established principle, that the word 
heirs is essential in a deed, to create an estate in fee 
simple or fee tail, and that no circumlocution from 
which the intention to do so might be inferred is 
sufficient, the good and sufficient reason being to 
avoid uncertainty, the mother of contention and con- 
fusion, — a departure from which principle in the 
construction of wills has opened so wide a door 
for constant dispute and uncertainty. 

His death occurred early in 1864, after more than 
a year's decay and suffering under that insidious 



GEORGE H. BROWN. 401 

malady known as " Briglit's disease." The previous 
death of a much loved child, had deeply afiected 
him, and was apparently made the means of reviving 
the religious impressions of his youth, and of leading 
him to a serious consideration of his condition as a 
sinner, and to an open profession of his faith in Christ 
as an all sufficient Saviour. 

He was not only a well read and able lawyer, but 
was fond of general literature, and a genial and very 
agreeable companion ; and he died at the early age 
of forty-six, greatly respected and deeply lamented, 
not only by his associates of the bench and bar, but 
by the community among whom he had lived. 

George H. Brown was a justice of the supreme 
court about four years and a half He was the son 
of Rev. Dr. Isaac V. Brown, long at the head of a 
classical academy at Laurenceville, and was born in 
the year 1810. After a preparatory training in his 
father's school, he entered Princeton College and 
graduated with honor in 1828. He then assisted 
his father as a tutor for a year or two before enter- 
ing upon the study of law. 

His clerkship as a law student was in the office 
of Thomas A. Hartwell, at Somerville ; but his prin- 
cipal legal education was obtained at the law school 
of New Haven. He was licensed as an attorney in 
1835, and as a counselor in 1838. He took up his 
residence and married in Somerville, and continued 
to reside there until his death. He soon had a very 
good reputation as a lawyer, and, for the place, a 
good business; laborious enough, but never very lu- 
crative. I had no personal intercourse with him, and 
therefore very little knowledge of his capacity, until 

26 



402 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

I sat on the bench. In argument before the court, 
he always showed himself fully master of the ques- 
tions involved, and in fact an able lawyer. 

He was a member of the convention that framed 
the new constitution in 1844, and took an active part 
in the discussions that took place in that body. Upon 
the adoption of that instrument, he was elected the 
> ,, first senator from the County of Somerset, as a Whig, 
^ ^ although the county usually gave a majority the 
other way. In 1850 he was elected a member of Con- 
gress ; but at the election in 1852, the district having 
been in the mean time changed, he was defeated. 

When Whelpley was appointed chief justice, in 
1861, he was nominated by Governor Olden a justice 
of the supreme court in his place, and confirmed by 
the senate. He made a very satisfactory judge, and 
was a very agreeable associate. But disease soon in- 
terfered very seriously with the performance of his 
judicial duties, insomuch that he would have resigned 
much sooner than he did, had not his friends, espe- 
cially those on the bench with him, urged him to con- 
tinue so long as there was any reasonable hope of 
recovery. But an insidious internal affection of some 
of his organs baffled all the efforts of medical skill, 
and terminated his life in 1865. 

His protracted illness, wdth the blessing of God, 
was made the means of leading him back to the early 
lessons of pious parents, so that some time before his 
death he gave good evidence of true penitence and 
faith in Christ. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

LAWYERS I HAVE IvNOWN. 

SAMUEL LEAKE. JAMES GILES. RICHARD STOCKTON. LUCIUS H. 
STOCKTON. GEORGE WOOD. GARRET D. WALL. WILLIAM W. 
MILLER. JACOB \V. MILLER. 

OEVERAL of the men eminent in the profession, 
^ at the commencement of the present century, 
had died or retired from active business before I was 
myself called to the bar. Among these were Thomas 
P. Johnson, Andrew Hunter, Aaron D. Woodruff, 
and Samuel Leake. I have more than once heard 
Judge Washington say that the bar of New Jersey 
was not excelled in eloquence or learning by any in 
the Union. Tliis was high praise, coming from so 
competent a judge, and one who took such pride in 
those of the profession, from the bar of Philadelphia, 
who attended the supreme court at Washington, as 
to say of them familiarly, when they entered the 
court, as a stage load of them in company sometimes 
did, " This is my bar." 

Samuel Leake was still living when I was admitted 
to the bar, and sometimes appeared in the supreme 
court, although he had retired from active business. 
He was born in Cumberland County in 1748, and 
graduated at Princeton in 1774, having previously 
taught a school at Newcastle. He was licensed as an 
attorney in 1776, and afterwards was a counselor 



404 BEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

and sergeant. He settled first at Salem, but removed 
to Trenton in 1785, where he resided until his death 
in 1820. 

He had during several years a very large practice, 
was a strictly honest lawyer, and an earnest, sincere 
Christian, belonging to the Presbyterian Church. His 
great simplicity of character and minute exactness, 
even in the most trifling matters, made him the sub- 
ject of many stories. Richard Stockton spoke of 
him as a learned lawyer, but as not possessed of much 
real talent. It was reported that upon one occasion, 
when opposed at the bar, Stockton referred to his hav- 
ing been a school-master, when he retorted, with his 
high-toned voice, "The diJBference between the gentle- 
man and myself, I suppose, is, that if he had ever been 
a school-master, he would be a school-master yet." 

One of the lawyers first known to me at Bridgeton, 
the place of my life-time residence, was James Giles. 
He was born in New York in the year 1759. His 
parents were from England, and do not appear to 
have had any relatives in this country. When he 
was still an infant, his father returned to the mother 
country, to be ordained as a minister of the Episco- 
pal Church. On his return, the vessel in which he 
came was wrecked in a violent snow-storm, at the 
entrance of Delaware Bay, and he perished. His 
body was said to have been buried in an old grave- 
yard, at New England Town, in Cape May County, 
now nearly or quite washed away by the encroach- 
ment of the bay ; but his son was never able to iden- 
tify the exact situation of the grave. 

At an early period of the Revolutionary War he 
was appointed a lieutenant in the second, or New York 



JAMES GILES. 406 

regiment of artillery, and continued in service until 
1782, in which year he became a student at law with 
Joseph Bloomfield, then resident at Trenton. In 
1780 he was attached to the command of Lafayette, 
and served under him in Virginia, being one of the 
officers who received from him a sword brought 
from France, which is now in the possession of the 
Historical Society of New Jersey. When his old 
commander visited this country in 1.824, this sword 
was handsomely remounted, and worn when he was 
received by the Society of Cincinnati of this State, 
of which Giles was a member. It was said at the 
time that the general received him with great cor- 
diality, and immediately recognized him and called 
him by name. He was for several years general of 
the Cumberland brigade of militia, and was generally 
addressed as General Giles. 

In 1783 he was licensed as an attorney, and in due 
time as a counselor, and in 1804 was made a ser- 
geant at law. Shortly after he was licensed he mar- 
ried the sister of General Bloomfield, and took up his 
residence in his native city, and was admitted to the 
bar there. In the first directory of that city, pub- 
lished in 1786, in the list of lawyers, is found the 
name of James Giles, Esq., 65 Maiden Lane. 

In 1788 he came with his family to Bridgeton, 
where he resided during the remainder of his life. 
In the ensuing year he was appointed by the legis- 
lature, in joint meeting, clerk of the county ; and 
being twice reappointed, he held that office fifteen 
years. Being at that time entitled also to practice 
law, he had quite a large, and, for that day, lucrative 
business. In 1793 he built for his own occupation a 
good house, which for many years was, with its or- 



406 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

namental grounds and furniture, the best residence 
in the place; and he accumulated the largest library, 
both of law and miscellaneous books, in South Jersey. 

He was a well-read lawyer and safe counselor; 
but it cannot be said that he was distinguished as mi 
advocate. He was a small man, precise in his dress, 
and remarkably erect and graceful, but very slow in 
his movements, and in all he did. At the circuits 
he was one of the most genial and delio-htful com- 
panions. The legal documents he drew were marked 
by great neatness and precision. About 1805 his 
friends confidently expected he would be elected one 
of the justices of the supreme court, although a 
majority of the joint meeting was politically opposed 
to him; but the result was that the law authorizing 
three associate justices was repealed. 

I recur with mournful pleasure to the memory of 
this gentleman, because he was kind and friendly to 
me in spite of old political differences with my father, 
with whom, however, for some years after the war, his 
relations were such as fellow-soldiers generally main- 
tain. His friendly countenance and encouragement 
were valuable to me when, a young practitioner, I 
first engaged in the conflicts of a profession some- 
times very trying to a beginner. He had a large 
family of children, most of whom died young. James 
G. Hampton, educated for the bar, who graduated at 
Princeton in 1835, and represented the first district 
in Congress two terms, and who died in 1863, was a 
grandson. Now all have passed away ; not a single 
individual of kin to General Giles, and onl}- remote 
kindred on the side of Mrs. Giles, remain in the State ; 
and it is scarce remembered that such a man ever 
lived. His name will be found a few times as counsel 



JAMES GILES. 407 

in the early reports; but liis business was nearly all 
confined to the counties of Cumberland and Cape 
Miiy. A beautiful daughter, who married a Mr. Ins- 
keep of Philadelphia, of the fiirm of Bradford & Ins- 
keep, booksellers, removed many years ago to New 
Orleans, and had several daughters, who iidierited 
some of their mother's beauty, whose descendants 
are still living there, and occupy respectable posi- 
tions in society. General Giles died in 1825. During 
the latter years of his life he held the situation of 
president of the Cumberland Bank. 

This reminiscence of an old friend, who died forty- 
five years ago, recalls the political conflicts of my boy- 
hood and youth. They are still much more violent 
than they ought to be ; but they were then much 
more fierce and unreasonable. When a small boy at 
school, and one of the only two boys belonging to 
republican families, I was obliged to fight more than 
one battle over a colored hat, bought for me without 
reference to politics, but which tlie federal boys who 
wore the black cockade stio-matized as French. A 
quarrel having broken out, in the recess of school, be- 
tween one of General Giles's daughters, of my own 
age, with a boy who was her cousin, afterwards a law- 
yer and long since dead, by way of applying the most 
opprobrious epithet she could think of, she called him 
a Democrat. This roused his an o'er so that he struck 

o 

her, and as I was present and aspired to be her cham- 
pion, a battle ensued between us, the victory in which, 
like many more serious conflicts, was claimed by both 
parties. When the fourth of March, 1801, came, a 
day I well remember, the Republicans had their tri- 
umph ; we sported a cockade of red and blue, and 
mustered strong enough to drive off" every federal 



408 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

boy that showed his face on the ground where the 
rejoicing was held. The conflict was continued, as is 
well known, for nearly twenty years, when, disheart- 
ened by repeated defeats, the Federalists surrendered 
at discretion ; and I look back with much satisfliction 
to the fact that I was glad to cooperate with them 
in forgetting old disputes and inaugurating that era 
of good feeling which prevailed until the success of 
the Jackson party renewed the strife of earlier days. 
During several years, an old Federalist who aspired 
to public office was generally disposed to ignore his 
previous party relations. 

An amusing incident, occurring- about the year 
1825, in the life of that eminent lawyer and patriot, 
James L. Petigru, of Charleston, — 

" Faithful found ; 
Among the faithless, faithful only he," — 

whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making a 
few years before his death, shows the extent of the 
feelimj;. A man whom he had offended lavished on 
him all the foul epithets and appellations he could 
remember or invent. The assaulted party stood un- 
moved, with half a smile of amusement on his flice. 
At last the bully bethought himself of a term of 
reproach, which, at that day, comprised everything 
hateful. He called him a "damned Federal." The 
words were no sooner uttered than a blow, altogether 
unexpected by the brawler, laid him in the sand. 
Being asked why he thought it a greater offense to 
be called a Federalist than to be called a rogue or 
rascal, Petigru replied, " I incur no injury from being 
abused as a rogue, for nobody believes the charge ; 
but I may be thought a Federalist readily enough, 
and be proscribed accordingly, and so I knocked 



RICHAKD STOCKTON. 409 

him down, by way of protest against all current mis- 

constructions." 

RicHAKD Stockton stood confessedly at the head of 
the bar, during my acquaintance w.th b,m from 
1818 until his death in 1828, when not quite sixty 
four years old. His friendship and patronage during 
hat time, 1 regard as having been of essential ser- 
t ce to m , and^uore valuable than that of any other 
Tember of the bar, excepting only Mr. Frclmghuysen 
whose faitlifulness as a Christian greatly enhanced 
lis other claims to regard ; and they were more 
hi<.hly appreciated, because I had no claims upon 
e th r of aiem from family or political connection, 
r.he providence of God, I was q-^e intimately 
associated with them not only as members of he 
bar they adorned, but as joint commissioners on the 
pltof'this State, for the settlement of the dispute 
with New York respecting the waters dividing the 
Two States. One of the marked traits m the characte 
of Mr. Stockton, was the pleasure it evidently gave 
him to assist young members of the ?«—.]>/ 
all suitable advice and encouragemen . I f«""^ '"™ 
disposed to be reticent in only one hing, and that I 
suppose grew out of his professional habits. When 
afociated with me in the trial or -g^-^fj 
cause as he was in a few important cases, he would 
. I her what he could from me, but did not seem dis- 
posed to aid me with suggestions as to the grounds 
Tpon which the case should be P--"f ' b"^f * ^^ 
to m-enare my own argument as best I could. His 
hXCto carefully Ttudy a case and make a very 
Ml brief; and he assigned as a reason for doing so 
that he was often obliged to argue the case a second 



410 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

or third time, on motions for a new trial or in error, 
and he was by being well prepared at the start saved 
much labor. He was a well read lawyer, and a dili- 
gent student, fond of the black letter, and would 
sometimes remark that an authority read from a 
heavy folio was entitled to more weight than one 
from a modern duodecimo. But he fully appreciated 
the service that Blackstone had done for the profes- 
sion, and wjis for many years, as I have heard him 
say, in the habit of reading the most important parts 
of his Commentaries, especially the second volume, 
once in every year. And he kept fully abreast of 
all the changes in the law. 

He belono;ed to one of the ancient families of the 
State, who from its early settlement were prominent. 
His father, named also Richard Stockton, was an ac- 
complished and eloquent lawyer, one of the justices 
of the supreme court before the Revolution, and a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence ; and his 
mother was a Boudinot, an accomplished woman of 
highly cultivated mind and literary taste.^ After 
having; o-raduated at Princeton, before he was sev- 
enteen years old, he studied law at Newark, with his 
uncle Elisha Boudinot, afterwards one of the justices 
of the supreme court. He was licensed as an at- 
torney in 1784, when only about twenty years old, 
afterwards as a counselor, and in 1792 was made a 
sergeant at law. He took up his residence on the 
paternal estate at Princeton, where he raised his 
family and resided during life. Altliough considered 
at first rather dull, as his powers matured he rose 
rapidly in his profession, and in a few, years ranked 
among the highest. 

1 See Field's Provincial Courts, 190. 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 411 

A slight examination of the siipreme court re- 
ports will show that from the time tlu-y eonimcnce 
until his death, no lawyer, except perhaps Mr. Leake, 
w'as more generally employed. His manner of speak- 
ing was usually dignified and unimpassioned ; hut he 
was capahle of splendid declamation and the most 
crushing sarcasm and scorn, and when provoked he 
sometimes indulged in them. He was, during his 
time, almost the only lawyer of the State who ai-gued 
causes before the supreme court at Washington, and 
these were cases not originating in New Jersey. 
When Mr. Webster took occasion to speak of lawyers 
of eminent talents, in answer to a fling of Mr. Binney, 
in his argument of the Girard will case, to which I 
listened, he enumerated among them Mr. Stockton, a3 
well as Mr. Jones of Washington, who had been at- 
tacked. He is no exception to the remark of Mr. 
Duponceau, that " lawyers leave nothing behind but 
the echo of a name." There are few remains of his 
learning or his eloquence. He was very little in the 
habit of writing for the newspapers or otherwise. 
The argument in favor of the New Jersey claims to 
the waters of the Hudson, appended to the report of 
the commissioners, published by order of the legisla- 
ture in 1828, is the only document in print from his 
pen of which I have any knowledge. It will be 
found to be a very able discussion, considering that 
he had to advocate a very doubtful claim ; but it is 
rather a lawyer's brief than a carefully prepared 
essay. Of his eloquent addresses to juries, which 
were often considered almost unequaled, there are 
no reports. 

In 1796 he was chosen by the joint meeting to a 
vacancy in the senate of the United States, and sat 



412 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

in that body until 1799. Being a very decided Fed- 
eralist of the Hamilton school, when that party be- 
came the minority in the State, as it was during most 
of his life after 1800, he of course shared their flite 
in being excluded from official position. Upon the 
declaration of war against Great Britain, when the 
opposition obtained a temporary majority in the State, 
and provided for the election of members of Congress 
by districts, he was elected in January, 1813, a mem- 
ber of the thirteenth Congress. 

He took a leading part among the able men then 
in the house of representatives, including Webster, 
Calhoun, and Clay, the three most distinguished states- 
men of the nation, although all failed to reach its 
highest position. One of his speeches, delivered Jan- 
uary 14, 1814, imperfectly reported in the "Na- 
tional Intelligencer," produced a strong impression in 
the house, and distinguished him as a powerful orator 
dangerous to attack. It was delivered in answer to 
some remarks, pointed especially at him, made by 
Charles J. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, who although 
as a youth known and received by Mr. Stockton as 
a warm Federalist, had now taken the side of the ad- 
ministration. For k^en retort and powerful invective, 
this speech has seldom been excelled, and the tradi- 
tion is that it completely humbled his assailant, even 
to drawing tears from his eyes. He probably had not 
intended to be personally offensive, but did not make 
sufficient allowance for the sensitive pride of his fa- 
ther's old friend. He promptly disclaimed all inten- 
tion to be personally disrespectful, avowed his own 
change of politics, and acknowledged the private 
worth, the high character, and the professional emi- 
nence of the member from New Jersey, declaring 



RICHARD STOCKTON. 413 

him to be, "in all* respects, except his politics, unex- 
ceptionable." 

Once, at the bar of the supreme court, I heard him 
address Chief Justice Kirkpatrick in language and 
with a manner no one else at the bar would have 
dared to imitate. lie did not like the chief justice 
very much, partly because he regarded him as a de- 
serter from the federal party, an offense not easy for 
him to forgive. We youngsters used to say the chief 
was afraid of him. When in the case of Gibbons vs. 
Ogden, reported in 1 Halsted R. 300, the chief jus- 
tice read his opinion, in which he stated he thought 
the law was with the defendant, but concluded by 
•saying, "yet from a real diffidence in my own judg- 
ment upon this question, especially when set in oppo- 
sition to that of the chancellor, and from a full per- 
suasion that it will be better for both parties to let 
the judgment be entered for the plaintiff here, and 
the case be carried up by appeal, to a superior judi- 
catory, to which great constitutional questions of this 
kind ultimately belong, I have thought it best upon 
the whole to say the demurrer to the plaintiff's dec- 
laration must be overruled." Mr. Stockton immedi- 
ately arose and asked the court, with an air not a 
little sarcastic, whether, as it appeared a majority of 
that court was in favor of his client, he should enter 
the judgment in accordance with that opinion, or in 
accordance with the opinion of the judge of another 
court. To this the chief justice of course replied, 
that he had stated very plainly what judgment was 
to be entered. 

He was from 1791 one of the trustees of Princeton 
College, taking always a lively interest in the con- 
cerns of that institution. The honorary degree of 







414 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

LL. D. was conferred on him by Rutger's and Union 
colleges, and no doubt would have been by his Alma 
Mater, had it not been that the invariable usage of 
the board is to decline voting honorary distinctions 
to one of their own number. 

Mr. Stockton was a large man, but of the most im- 
posing personal appearance and captivating address. 
Among the junior members of the bar, he was gen- 
erally spoken of as " the old duke." No other man 
has come under my observation, to whom such a title 
could be so appropriately applied. He was a noble 
man, in the true sense of that epithet. While he was 
X^ entirely free from any assumption of personal impor- 

tance, his whole deportment and demeanor were those 
of a man of the highest distinction. Perfectly affable 
in his manners, and easy of access to those who en- 
joyed his friendship, there was something about him 
which led all who approached him to show him re- 
spect. And those best acquainted and most intimate 
with him respected him most. 

When Judge Pennington died in 1826, it was ex- 
pected by the friends of Mr. Stockton that the situ- 
ation of judge of the United States district 'court 
would be conferred on him. His superior qualifica- 
tions and willingness to accept it were well known to 
President John Quincy Adams and Mr. Southard, then 
in his cabinet. But other influences prevailed. The 
political prospects of the administration were known 
to be rather doubtful, and to appoint so pronounced a 
Federalist to office was no doubt considered unadvis- 
able. 

Mr. Stockton peremptorily declined allowing his 
friends to take any steps to secure his appointment. 
He said to me and to others, that although it would 



LUCIUS HORATIO STOCKTON. 416 

be very agreeable to him to retire from the toils of 
the profession, and that the moderate salary annexed 
to the office, joined to his pi-ivate fortune, would en- 
able him to continue the stvle of livino; to whicli he 
had been accustomed ; yet he would not solicit the 
office; if it was conferred on hiui, it must be because 
the President and his advisers thought him the fit 
man. Unfortunately mere fitness for the office was i^ 
not then, and has seldom ever been, the principal rea- 
son for an appointment. 1 confess I was a good deal 
grieved that Mr. Southard did not, on this occasion, '-^'' 
rise above mere party expediency. A letter to me 
from him, dated November 26, 1826, remarks: "You 
are all, I mean my friends in New Jersey whom inti- 
macy justifies me in looking to for advice, very cos- 
tive, as southern politicians say, about the district 
judgeship. Not one word can I get from those I ask. 
Now take notice, after the decision is made, I hold 
you all responsible for it, and bound to justify it; you 
have no riglit to keep dark, and after I get into diffi- 
culty, abuse me for my blindness" He knew per- 
fectly well, however, what keeping dark, as he called 
it, meant in my case, and I suppose in others. No 
other member of the bar has since held quite the 
same position as did Richard Stockton. The late 
Commodore Robert F. Stockton was his son. 

Lucius Horatio Stockton, known to his associates 
as Horace Stockton, was a younger brother of Rich- 
ard, and in early life was thought to be quite equal 
if not superior to him in talent. He graduated at 
Princeton in 1787, was licensed in 1791, and died in 
1835. But a disposition to eccentricity was soon ex- 
hibited, and so increased as in a o-reat measure to de- 



416 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

stroy his usefulness. He resided in Trenton, and at 
one time was in good business, especially in the south- 
ern counties. I used to hear in nay youth of a case 
before the Cumberland quarter sessions, in which he 
was one of the counsel, that was much talked about. 
In the year 1793, and while the yellow fever pre- 
vailed in Philadelphia so fatally, a man who was con- 
fined in the jail at Bridgeton for a small debt, sick- 
ened with the disease, to the great alarm of the in- 
habitants. My uncle, Jonathan Elmer, who had been 
a member of Congress during the Revolution, and one 
of the first senators under the new Constitution, and 
who, although educated as a physician, was also a 
well read lawyer, was the presiding judge of the 
county court, and following the example of the judges 
at the time of the great plague in London, he ordered 
the man to be removed to the house of his mother, 
where he died. The creditor sued the sheriff for an 
escape, and obtained a judgment against him before a 
justice. There was an appeal to the sessions. When 
the case came on for trial, the first effort of Mr. Stock- 
ton, as counsel for the creditor, was to prevent Judge 
Elmer from remainino; on the bench; but he declined 
to withdraw, and in the course of the proceedings, 
protracted into the night, said something which Mr. 
Stockton deemed offensive, so that he demanded to 
know whether he spoke as a man or as a judge. 
To this the judge replied that he spoke both as a man 
and as a judge ; and thereupon Mr. Stockton an- 
nounced, with many expressions of deference to the 
court, that if he would come off from the bench and 
repeat his remark solely as a man, he would pull his 
nose as a man. He lost his cause for want of proper 
evidence of any valid judgment against the debtor. 



GEORGE WOOD. 417 

Mr. Stockton was a warm politician, and accustomed 
to write in the newspapers of the day. Under the 
administration of the ehler Adams, he held the office 
of United States attorney for this district ; and to- 
wards the close of that administration was nominated 
as secretary of war, but was not confirmed. When I 
knew him he had declined in business and efficiency. 
A gleam of his old spirit, however, broke out upon one 
occasion before Judge Washington, who always treated 
him with great respect and forbearance. Upon the 
argument of his cause, as had come to be very much 
his practice, he cited case after case in support of the 
most flxmiliar principles, until at last the judge re- 
marked to him very pleasantly, '• Mr. Stockton, you 
are shootino; a dead duck." He said nothing at the 
time, but happening during the same term to have a 
case that involved a question of some nicety, he af- 
fected to consider that point as too plain to require 
argument ; and when told by the judge that he 
wished to hear it discussed, he said, very meekly, 
" 0, may it please your honor, I was afraid of being 
accused of shooting the dead duck." 

George Wood was probably the ablest man New 
Jersey has produced. He was born in Burlington 
County, graduated at Princeton in 1808, studied 
law with Richard Stockton, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1812, taking up his residence in New Bruns- 
wick. It was not long before he rivaled his master, 
to whom in some respects he was superior. His in- 
tellect was of the highest order, entitling him to rank 
with Mr. Webster. His power of analogical reason- 
ing was very striking ; the most difficult subject 
seemed to arrange itself in his mind in its true pro- 

27 



418 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

portions. He had the faculty attributed to Lord 
Mansfield, of so stating a question as to make the 
mere statement a sufficient argument. He generally 
spoke from mere short memoranda in pencil, and 
was so accurate in the use of language, that what he 
said would, when written down, prove entirely cor- 
rect. 

After a few years' practice at the bar of this State, 
he removed to New York, where he took rank among 
the leaders, and was the equal if not superior to the 
best of them. Until his death in 1860, he was en- 
gaged in the most important causes not only in New 
York, but in other States. He was among the few 
eminent lawyers of the country who held no office. 
Upon the death of Judge Thompson in 1845, he was 
strongly recommended to President Tyler, to take 
his place on the bench of the supreme court of the 
United States, and there can be no doubt he would 
have adorned the station. His political education 
was as a Federalist ; but he was not addicted to pol- 
itics, and never supported the republican party. Not 
long before his death, he spoke at a public meeting 
in New York, strongly in favor of maintaining the 
compromises of the Constitution, and thus obtained 
the honorable designation from some of the radical 
papers of " Union saver." 

In my early practice, it was my fortune several 
times to encounter him at the bar, and a most for- 
midable adversary he was. The last time I heard 
him was in the year 1855, when he appeared before 
the New Jersey court of appeals, in the case of Gif- 
ford vs. Thorn, reported in 1 Stock. 708. I have 
always thought his speech in that case, upon the 
whole, the ablest to which I ever listened. It com- 



GARRET DORSET WALL. 419 

bined almost every kind of eloquence : in solid rea- 
soning quite equal to that of his leading opponent, 
Charles O'Connor ; in playful wit, in occasional ap- 
peals to the sympathy of the judges, and in impas- 
sioned declamation, quite superior. 

Garret Dorset Wall was the fourth child of James 
Wall, and w^as born in the township of Middletown, 
Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1783. The first 
of the family who came over from England was 
Walter Wall, who, after living a short time in Mas- 
sachusetts and in Long Island, settled in Monmouth 
County in the year 1657. James Wall was the fourth 
in descent from Walter, and married the daughter 
of John Dorset. 

James Wall was an officer of the militia during the 
War of the Revolution, was engaged in the Battle 
of Monmouth, and received' the sword of a British of- 
ficer, whom he captured on that occasion. Upon his 
death in 1792, leaving a widow with six children in 
straitened circumstances, Garret, a boy of ten years 
old, was sent to reside with his uncle, Dr. John G. 
Wall, at Woodbridge, where he continued until the 
death of the Doctor in 1798. He was there associ- 
ated with the late Judge Crane, who removed many 
years ago to Dayton, Ohio, and was several years a 
representative in Congress. He informed me, that 
although older than Garret, they were members for 
about two years of the same class in a good classical 
school, where most of the pupils were engaged in 
the ordinary English course ; but a small class, includ- 
ing Crane and Wall, studied the Greek and Latin 
languages. They were afterwards members of Con- 
gress at the same time, and had the pleasure of re- 



420 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

iiewing their old friendship, although taking opposite 
sides in politics. 

The scanty store of learning obtained at Wood- 
bridg^e was all that Wall's circumstances allowed him 
to acquire. In the spring of 1798, when in his fif- 
teenth year, he commenced the study of the law at 
Trenton, in the office of General Jonathan Rhea, then 
clerk of the supreme court, one of whose daughters 
he afterwards married. He is said then to have been 
a tall, awkward boy, but giving promise of great 
cleverness ; and he rapidly improved in his personal 
appearance and manners. He became, indeed, re- 
markable for comeliness and an engaging and win- 
ning address. He studied pretty faithfully, and prof- 
ited by his studies. He also performed much of tlie 
duties of the clerk's office, deriving his principal sup- 
port from his services there. By diligent attention 
to the duties of the office, and by careful study, he 
made himself perfectly familiar with the practice of 
the court, and with the original sources from which 
it w^as derived ; so that his authority on all subjects 
connected with the practice was afterward confidently 
appealed to and relied on by the bar and the bench. 
In the year 1804 he was licensed to be an attorney, 
in 1807 as a counselor, and in 1820 was called to be 
a serg;eant at law. Soon after he was first licensed, 
lie married and commenced practice in Trenton. In 
1812 the federal party, to which he belonged, having 
obtained a temporary ascendancy in the State, he 
was elected by the joint meeting clerk of the supreme 
court, an office valuable to him from its considerable 
income, and as aiding to introduce him to business 
in his profession. Upon the expiration of his term 
in 1817, although the democratic party had then 



GARRET DORSET WALL. 421 

the majority, it was well understood that he would 
have been reelected but for the circumstance that 
one of his own parly absolutely refused him his sup- 
port, on the avowed ground that when the federal 
party had the majority, Wall, with that disinterested 
generosity which distinguished him through life, used 
his influence with success to retain in office the dem- 
ocratic treasurer, who was a personal friend, and at 
that time held in high esteem. 

During his period of study, and after he came to 
the bar, although not a systematic student, he was a 
diligent reader, and fond of tracing legal principles 
to their original sources. As soon as his means per- 
mitted, he collected a large and valuable law and mis- 
cellaneous library, and made a good use of it. Far 
from being satisfied with mere abridgments and com- 
pends, like every lawyer who attains to even mod- 
erate eminence, he had recourse to the original black 
letter, and mastered the more abstrase as well as the 
more attractive portions of the law as a science. He 
was well grounded in the doctrines of the common law 
in relation to real estate, and fully able to unravel its 
most intricate subtleties. He read, also, and imbued 
his mind with the productions of the best authorities 
in the English language, and continued to do so to 
the close of his life. 

But although his native powers were of the highest 
order, they were never subjected to that exact disci- 
pline necessary to their full exercise, and they devel- 
oped themselves very slowly. He had at first great 
difficulty in expressing himself, was titnid and dis- 
trustful of himself, and exhibited through life some- 
thing approaching to an impediment in his speech. 
It was not until deprived of office that he took a high 



422 EEMINISCENCKS OF NEW JERSEY. 

place in liis profession. That place, however, he did 
take, and maintained it until diverted by other pur- 
suits. I have heard him sa}^, that, give him William 
Griffith and Richard Stockton for his associates, he 
would not be afraid to meet any three lawyers that 
could be selected in the United States ; and it was no 
idle boast. It would have been hard to match three 
such advocates, and harder still to beat them. 

The immediate descendant of a revolutionary sol- 
dier, he partook himself largely of the military spirit. 
It was seen, so long as he retained his health, in his 
erect carriage, his measured step, his glowing eye, and 
in the very style of his dress ; and hence the military 
title of general, with which we were so long accus- 
tomed to greet him, and which he derived from hold- 
ing for a time the office of quartermaster-general of 
the State, was not, as in many instances, a title to 
which he seemed to have no proper claim, but one 
that naturally belonged to him, and which came to 
our lips spontaneously, as his rightful due. 

During the War of 1812, he took command as cap- 
tain of the Phoenix Company of uniformed militia, 
which had been first established during the Revolu- 
tion, in which he had for some time held the post of 
lieutenjint, and with them volunteered a tour of ac- 
tive service, as a part of the force detailed for the 
protection of New York. He earnestly advised Colonel 
Ogden to accept the appointment of major-general, 
and offered to resign his office, then yielding him a 
lar-J-e income of which he had much need, and to take 

o .... 

whatever place might be assigned to him in his mili- 
tary family. 

It is not easy to exhibit the proofs of genius and 
capacity exhibited by a lawyer, while actively engaged 



GARRET DORSET WALL. 423 

at the bar. In the words of Mr. Duponceau, himself 
an example of what he described, " The life of a law- 
yer in the full practice of his profession offers very 
little but the dismal round of attendance upon courts, 
hard studies at night, and in the day fatiguing exer- 
tions, which, however brilliant, are confined to a nar- 
row theatre, and leave nothing behind but the echo 
of a name." One of the most important cases in 
which he was concerned, and which he argued with 
" great care and ability," was that of Arnold vs. Mun- 
day, in the first volume of Halsted's Reports. He 
was on the side that eventually failed, although sub- 
sequent study and reflection have satisfied me it 
would have been better had he succeeded. 

The distinguishing characteristics of General Wall 
as an advocate were his quick sensibility, an intuitive 
insight into character and motives, and that ready 
tact which enabled hiin easily to recover from his 
own mistakes, and promptly to take advantage of 
those of his adversary. Although he had often a hes- 
itating and confused manner of expressing himself, 
which in his early efforts was very discouraging, and 
which it cost him the most strenuous efforts to over- 
come; yet he not unfrequently rose to the highest 
eloquence. He scorned everything like trick and un- 
fairness ; but it cannot be denied that he often erred 
in being too willing to press an accidental or even un- 
fair advantage, when on the side of his client, and to 
confuse a jury if possible by the intricacy of his state- 
ments. 

These are errors to which lawyers are too prone. 
But he never adopted the extravagant and false doc- 
trine gravely advanced by Lord Brougham in the 
English house of lords, that " to serve that client by 



424 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

all expedient means, to protect that client at all 
hazards and cost to others, and amongst others to him- 
self, is the highest and most unquestioned of his 
duties." 

No lawyer, whatever examples to the contrary may 
have been set by those high in the profession, can 
safely imitate the course pursued by Mr. Phillips, a 
famous advocate for criminals in England, in the 
defense of the assassin Courvoisier (even although 
adopted, as that was said to have been, by the advice 
of the judge who tried the case), which exposed him 
to such severe, and to some extent to such just re- 
proach. After the criminal had confessed to him his 
guilt, he attacked and endeavored to discredit wit- 
nesses he knew were tellino; the truth. 

I was informed by the late Judge Potts, who was 
a student in General Wall's office, that he was re- 
markably candid with his clients, when they fairly 
disclosed their cases to him, and if he felt clear that 
they were wrong, did not hesitate to tell them so ; 
but at the same time he was cautious not to decide 
against them, saying, with some humor, that lawyers 
might err as well as judges, and that it was hardly fair 
to make a client pass through two ordeals, with two 
chances to be beaten, — one by the error of his law- 
yer in prejudging his case, and the other by the 
error of the court or jury in not deciding it right- 
fully. When he had undertaken a case, he prepared 
it with great pains, and managed it with dexterity, 
being full of resources, and ready at expedients. 

His mind dwelt very little on the details of his of- 
fice business ; his great fault, indeed, was that he had 
not the habit of steady application. He was kind and 
gentlemanly, never leaving his students without shak- 



GARRET DORSET WALL. 425 

ing hands with them. The idea of distrusting any 
one seemed never to enter his head. When about to 
leave home, he wouhl often say to a student, '' Get 
my keys, and hunt up all the money you can find and 
deposit it in bank." The hunt had commonly first to 
be made for the keys, and then a longer hunt for the 
money, which would be found scattered in the draw- 
ers of his secretary or table, wherever he had hap- 
pened to empty his pockets. He showed the gener- 
osity of his nature by the deep interest he took in 
his students after they left him, always using his in- 
fluence in their favor when he could. 

He was distinguished for his hospitality, carrying 
this virtue often to the extreme limits, and even be- 
yond the bounds of prudence. His clients, and his 
neighbors ran to him for all sorts of counsel, and at 
all times, convenient or inconvenient. For the ad- 
vice thus sought, and always freely given, he seldom 
made any charge. But few lawyers ever did so much 
business without being adequately paid, and I may 
add but few ought to. If anybody got into trouble, 
the first man he would think of applying to for relief 
would be General Wall ; and rarely did any one apply 
without getting what he asked for, if it was in his 
power to give it, and often when it was much to his 
injury. Faithful and self-sacrificing as a friend, he 
was placable as an enemy ; and although sometimes 
violent in his resentments, he was always easily paci- 
fied, and had no memory for injuries. 

The early training of General Wall was as a Feder- 
alist, and, like many of those with whom he asso- 
ciated, he was fjxr from moderation in his opposition to 
the Republicans. But in process of time he changed 
his political relations and his views of men and meas- 



426 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

ures. His own language, in a speech made in the 
senate, was : " My colleague (Mr. Southard) with 
some scorn speaks of modern democracy, and says 
that he went to bed one night a Democrat, and rose 
the next morning a Federalist. Sir, if such a sudden 
metamorphose took place, his democracy must have 
been composed of • such stuff as dreams are made 
of; like shadows it came, and like shadows it de- 
parted.' My democracy, however modern it may be, 
neither came so suddenly, nor will it, I hope, be so 
evanescent. I admit that my democracy is a plant 
of slow growth ; it neither came up in a night, nor 
will it be found withered in the morning. It resulted 
from reflection, experience, and the conquest over 
error and prejudice ; and I hope that, like all plants 
of slow growth, it will be the more enduring. I have 
no pretension to that unctuous democracy which 
arises from hereditary descent. I cannot boast that 
'I was born in the purple.' Hereditary democracy 
savors rather of aristocracy, and, like hereditary 
property, is apt to be dissipated." 

In the year 1822 he was elected a member of the 
Assembly from the County of Hunterdon, running on 
a union ticket, and was the only one of that ticket 
who succeeded. I met him there as a fellow-member, 
and I well recollect the part he took in our proceed- 
ino-s. His frank and amiable manners made him a 
general favorite, while his intimate acquaintance with 
the common law, the statutes of the State, and the 
practice of the courts, enabled him to render essential 
service in the ordinary business of legislation. Polit- 
ical contests did not disturb us, and no very impor- 
tant questions arose for discussion. Upon one occasion, 
however, he spoke with great eloquence and effect. 



GARRET D0RSP:T WALL. 427 

Divorces were at that time granted by private acts, 
often for very insufficient reasons, without anything 
like a careful investigation of the alleged causes, and 
sometimes even without reasonable notice to the op- 
posite party. After several such acts had passed 
against his vote, he was at length aroused to such an 
exposnre of the injustice of the proceeding, and the 
danger of thus tampering with the dearest and most 
sacred relation of life, as for a time to arrest the prac- 
tice. 

He was one of the earliest supporters of General 
Jackson for the presidency. I remember that early 
in the fall of 1824 I heard him predict, greatly to my 
surprise, that the electoral vote of the State would be 
given to Jackson, as it was ; but I was not then aware 
of a fact which was known to him, that many of the 
most influential Federalists in all parts of the State 
would oppose Mr. Adams. 

In 1827 he appeared before the democratic caucus 
of Hunterdon County, consisting of a great crowd, 
numbering some twelve hundred persons, who voted 
for the candidates by a regular ballot. His success in 
obtaining a nomination, in spite of the opposition of 
the leaders of the party, was the strongest proof of 
his personal popularity and of his powers as an ora- 
tor. It was with difficulty he obtained a hearing, a 
great effort being made to drown his voice and cry 
him down. But soon the clear tones of his voice be- 
o-an to rino; throuo-h the room, and within five minutes 
he talked the meeting into silence. Judge Potts, who 
was secretary of the meeting, said of his speech, " He 
spoke for an hour; it was the boldest, the most spirit- 
stirring and powerful popular address I ever heard, 
before or since." It used to be said that in the course 



428 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of it, he literally took off his coat and turned it inside 
out, so wearing it during the remainder of the meet- 
ing. He not only obtained the nomination for mem- 
ber of Assembly, but was elected by the people. 

From the time of his adoption as a candidate of 
the democratic party, he held a high position in tlie 
confidence and respect of that party. His democracy 
being, as he said, " a plant of slow growth," was pro- 
gressive and enduring. It did not consist in mere 
adherence to party usages and party discipline, but 
a steady principle, leading him to earnest efforts " to 
produce the greatest good to the greatest number." 
To that portion of the party to which he was first at- 
tached, who had no real confidence in our republican 
system, and who only endured it as an experiment 
they expected to fiil, he never belonged. His nat- 
ural sympathies were with the onward movement of 
the popular cause. It was the profound remark of a 
great statesman, " that a young man who was not an 
enthusiast in matters of government must possess low 
and groveling principles of action ; but an old man, 
who was an enthusiast, must have lived to no pur- 
pose." The enthusiasm of his youth was abated by 
age and experience; but he never lost his trust and 
hope in the advance of society, under free democratic 
institutions. 

Although a party man, and ready enough to em- 
bark in party measures, seldom was any one more 
free from party bitterness. He never allowed polit- 
ical preferences to estrange him from a friend ; and 
however high the political ferment of the day, he 
never permitted what he conceived to be the error of 
a political opponent to harden his heart or sever the 
bonds of friendship. He was held in strong persona] 



GARRET DORSET WALL. 429 

esteem, and was alway.s in hal^its of intimate social 
intercourse with his poUtical opponents, while living ; 
and when he died, was honored and mourned by all 
who knew him. 

In the fall of 1828 he married the second time, and 
removed to Burlington. His party having a majority 
in the legislature of 1829, elected him governor, a 
position he declined accepting. He was however ap- 
pointed by Jackson, without his solicitation, and in- 
deed desirous of leaving the incumbent undisturbed, 
to the office of district attorney of New Jersey, the 
duties of which he fulfilled for several years with his 
accustomed ability. 

He was elected United States senator in the year 
1834, and remained in that office the constitutional 
term, an active supporter of the administrations of 
Jackson and Van Buren. Several of his speeches have 
been published, and are among the ablest of which 
that period of high excitement and keen controversy 
gave birth. Among them was one opposing earnestly 
and vigorously a national bank, partaking in the hos- 
tility of his party to that institution, " whose directory 
seated in their marble palace at Philadelphia, like the 
gods on Olympus, would make rain or sunshine as it 
pleased their sovereign will." He opposed the bank- 
rupt bill, passed at one session and repealed the next, 
as partial and unjust. One of his speeches in reply to 
Mr. Crittenden, and in opposition to his proposed act 
punishing federal officers for interfering even by per- 
suasion with voters, has not been preserved, but is 
said to have been one of the most brilliant and spirited 
of his efforts while senator. The bill received but 
five votes in its favor. 

One of the prominent traits in the character of 



430 



REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 



w 



General Wall was his attachment to his native State. 
No one appreciated more highly the natural advan- 
tages of this, one of the Old Thirteen States, whose 
people took so prominent and patriotic a part in the 
struffffles of our Revolution, and no one was more 
anxious to improve them. He never forgot that he 
was a Jerseyman. Here he was born, and here he 
spent his life ; here was his home, and here the friends 
he loved. Here he commenced life a poor orphan 
boy; and here by his own native energy, and by that 
self-reliance which is ever the surest element of suc- 
cess, he had risen to honorable distinction. 

But because he was a Jerseyman, he was not less 
an American ; he was in truth an American, because he 
was a Jerseyman. He differed essentially from those 
abolitionists whose measures helped to produce a ter- 
rible civil war, but like most of our public men who 
have been honored with the confidence of our people, 
of whatever political name, he deprecated the violence 
of the South ; and had he lived to see armed hosts 
madly engaged in hostility to the flag of our Union, 
he would without doubt have been found among 
those fighting to support it. But the conflict ended, 
and the Union restored, it is safe to infer that he 
would have earnestly opposed measures of " recon- 
struction " that have produced doubtful alterations of 
the Constitution, in opposition, as there is too much 
reason to believe, to the real wishes of a majority of 
our people. 

Upon the expiration of his senatorial term, his po- 
litical friends were in the minority, and he returned 
to the pursuits of his profession. It was not long be- 
fore he was prostrated by disease of such a character 
as might have been expected, if it did not prove im- 



WILLIAM W. MILLER. 431 

mediately fatal, would so affect his physical and his 
mental energies as to prevent him from attending to 
business. It was indeed a striking proof of the in- 
domitable energy of his character, that, upon his par- 
tial recovery, he engaged in some important trials, 
and conducted them with almost his wonted skill and 
ability. 

He manifested a deep interest in the adoption of 
the new constitution of New Jersey, and although not 
a member of the convention which prepared it, he 
contributed materially to the success of the measure. 
He took a lively interest in the promotion of learn- 
ing;, and was an active member of the board of trus- 
tees of Burlington College. A year or two before his 
death, he accepted a seat in the court of errors and 
appeals, and is understood to have evinced much legal 
discrimination in the decision of some of the impor- 
tant questions which came before that tribunal. But 
this was only the gleam of the setting sun. In the 
month of November, 1850, his disease assumed a fatal 
character, and terminated his life. 

WiLLLiM W. Miller was born in Hunterdon County 
in the year 1797. Although living in the country, 
which commonly presents so many more alluring pas- 
times for a boy, and having the companionship of a 
large family of brothers and sisters, yet his fondness 
for and his application to study was so great, that at 
the age of twelve years he was prepared to enter the 
Freshman class at college. The regulations of the 
institution not permitting this, he pursued his studies 
alone, and at the age of fourteen entered the junior 
class of Princeton College half advanced. Before he 
was sixteen he graduated, taking one of the honors 



432 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of his class, several members of which were afterwards 
quite distinguished men. 

Owing to his youth, he was advised not to enter 
immediately upon his professional studies, but to re- 
view the studies he had gone over. For this purpose 
he went to Somerville, and there instructed in the 
languages a class of young men all older than himself. 
Pretty soon, however, he entered upon the study of 
the law with Theodore Frelinghuysen, and was licensed 
as an attorney in 1818, and as a counselor in 1821. 

He commenced practice as a lawyer in Morristown, 
and continued there five or six years, then removing 
with his family, consisting of a wife and three children, 
to Newark. His reputation as a public speaker be- 
gan at this time to attract attention, not only in his 
own neighborhood, but also in the city of New York, 
so that frequent calls were made upon him to address 
public meetings. His speech in behalf of the Greeks, 
then struggling to relieve themselves from the oppres- 
sion of the Turks, made in Trinity Church, Newark, 
July 13, 1824, won for him applause which rang 
through the whole country, and is still spoken of as 
a masterj)iece of eloquence. 

In February, 1825, he was retained as counsel for 
a minister of the Dutch Church, who had sued his son- 
in-law in New York for a gross slander. The case 
was one which excited universal interest, and the City 
Hall was crowded to excess. The celebrated Thomas 
Addis Emmet was one of the counsel of the defend- 
ant ; so that every circumstance was calculated to 
enlist the sympathy and stimulate the ambition of a 
young lawyer. Mr. Miller spoke nearly three hours, 
durino; which the excitement of the crowd was in- 
tense, and when at last he sank exhausted in a chair. 



WILLIAM W. MILLER. 433 

Emmet embraced him, and the defendant sobbed so 
loud as to be heard all over the house. The cause was 
gained, but it was the last effort of the gifted orator ; 
that night he had a hemorrhage of the lungs. 

By the advice of his physicians he left home and 
went into the South of France, and for a time seemed 
better; but on the 24th of July, 1825, he was again 
attacked by a hemorrhage at a hotel in Paris, and 
died at the early age of twenty-eight years and a few 
months. He lies buried in the well-known cemetery 
of Pere la Chaise, where an iron railing marks the 
spot, and which is visited with melancholy interest 
by his American friends. 

Upon the news of his death, a meeting of the bench 
and bar was held in the court room at Trenton, of 
which Richard Stockton was chairman, and Peter D. 
Vroom secretary. Very complimentary resolutions 
were adopted. Lucius H. Stockton, with the readiness 
and tendency to exaggeration always displayed, ex- 
pressed the feeling that animated those present by 
saying : "I do not think it possible that a greater 
loss could have been sustained by society at large, or 
by our own fraternity, than that which has been this 
day announced. We sincerely lament his premature 
death, cut off in the morning of a life which opened 
with such splendid prospects, and gave so fxir a prom- 
ise. It is not, sir, merely that he was eloquent in 
debate, profound in erudition, highly adorned with 
the most elegant embellishment of classical science; 
not that he was a man great in practical wisdom, 
and powerful intellectual capacity ; it is not merely 
on account of these, however important traits of his 
character, that we so much mourn his loss. We are 
more deeply and solemnly affected when we reflect 

28 



434 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

upon his amiable and affectionate temper, the active 
benevolence of his useful life, the honorable and del- 
icate purity of his principles, and especially the un- 
affected simplicity and sincerity of that piety for 
which, without the least tincture of superstition or 
sectarian bigotry, he was so much distinguished." 

Although so long in his grave, Mr. Miller was 
younger than myself I had only a slight acquaint- 
ance aud no professional intercourse with him ; but I 
well remember his reputation for splendid oratorical 
powers, and his high character as a Christian gentle- 
man. His Greek speech was published, and univer- 
sally admired. 

Jacob W. Miller was a younger brother of William 
W. Miller, and in early youth came near to rival him 
as a speaker. He Was born at Cherry Valley, in Mor- 
ris County, in the year 1800, and studied law with 
his brother. He was licensed as an attorney in 1823, 
as a counselor in 1826, and in 1837 was one of 
those last called to b^ a sergeant at law. He lived 
and practiced his profession in Morristown, where for 
many years and in the adjoining counties, he was a 
leading and influential advocate. He had a large 
practice, insomuch that I recollect when at one time 
a circle of lawyers were discussing the probable gains 
of the prominent members of the profession, and 
when three thousand dollars a year was supposed to 
be about the highest mark, he was spoken of as prob- 
ably gaining more than any other counselor in the 
State. He was distinguished not only as a fervent 
and impressive speaker, but for patient industry, 
faithfulness, and tact. He was distino-uished also for 
that sound common sense, which is above all other 



JACOB W. MILLER. 435 

sense, and was by its exliibition in public and private, 
a man of great personal influence. 

In 1838 he entered public life, becoming a member 
of the legislative council of this State. In 1840, and 
subsequently in 1846, he was elected by the Whig 
party, to which he belonged, to the senate of the 
United States. That body was then in the zenith of 
its distinction. All the great men were there. He was 
not equal to several of them ; but the sterling quali- 
ties of his intellect and character were not overshad- 
owed. . He gained and retained the respect of his as- 
sociates and of the country at large. 

In April, 1850, I visited Washington and saw him 
in the senate chamber. The compromise measure in 
reference to the admission of California into the Union 
as a State, was before that body. He was favorable 
to the immediate admission of the State, as recom- 
mended in his message by President Taylor, and of 
course differed from the leader he had been accus- 
tomed to follow. Upon this occasion I saw, with no 
little surprise and amazement. Miller and Dayton, and 
most of the other Whig members, following the lead 
of Mr. Benton, the man of all others they had been ac- 
customed to contemn ; while most of the Democrats 
were just as implicitly following the lead of Mr. Clay. 

I could not help rather ironically congratulating 
Mr. Miller on his very remarkable choice of a leader, 
about the last man he had ever expected to follow. 
He replied with very good humor, that it certainly 
was a very unlooked for change, but circumstances 
had rendered it necessary. 

On the next day I went with him to wait on the 
President, and here a conversation occurred still 
more curious than the proceedings in the senate 



436 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

chamber. No other person accompanied us but his 
young son ; and we found only one person in the 
reception room, who left directly upon our entrance. 
I was introduced as the attorney-general of New 
Jerse3\ After a polite reception the President com- 
menced talking to Mr. Miller very rapidly, and with 
considerable excitement in reference to the proceed- 
ings in the senate, and declared himself in favor of 
admitting California without terms, and opposed to 
Mr. Clay's propositions. 

The resolutions introduced by Mr. Clay, which he 
hoped would make an amicable arrangement of the 
whole slavery controversy, were to the effect that 
California should be admitted as a State without re- 
striction as to slavery ; that appropriate governments 
should be established in all the other Territories with- 
out restriction as to slavery; that slavery should not 
be abolished in the District of Columbia, while it 
existed in Maryland, without the consent of the 
people of that State and of the District; that the 
slave-trade should be abolished within the District ; 
that more effectual provision should be made for the 
restitution of fugitive slaves; and that Congress had 
no power to prohibit the trade in slaves between the 
slaveholding States. 

Without particularly discussing the difference be- 
tween the two measures, the President spoke of a 
speech Mr. Clay had recently made, in which he had 
praised General Scott very highly, and deolared him 
to be the greatest general for strategy then in the 
world. Yes, Taylor said, " some senator might have 
replied and told him what his strategy or stratagem 
was; by licking Polk's boots he had got my army 
away from me, and left me at the mercy of Santa 



JACOB W. MILLER. 437 

Anna, — that was his strategy or stratagem ; and 
thus he sacrificed Mr. Clay's son, — that was his strat- 
egy or stratagenu" Upon every emphatic pronmicia- 
tion of the word stratagem, repeated many times, he 
shrugged his shoulders and spit. 

He then went on to speak of the celebration of 
Mr. Clay's birthda}^, which was soon to take place at 
New York, when Mr. Cooper, senator from Pennsyl- 
vania, was to deliver an address. The plan agreed 
upon, he said, was to run Mr. Clay for the next presi- 
dent with General Scott for vice-president, to which 
he said the latter had reluctantly assented. I under- 
stood Mr. Miller to say that he believed such a plan 
was on foot. It was afterwards frustrated by the 
death of Mr. Clay before the time for the new elec- 
tion arrived. General Scott, as is well known, was set 
up as the Whig candidate, and was beaten by Pierce, 
and the Whig party dissolved. I was informed, and 
believe it to be true, that Scott, although commander- 
in-chief of the army, never saw Taylor after his 
election to the presidency. It was said that upon 
one occasion he got half way up the stairs on his way 
to the reception room, but something occurred which 
made him beat a retreat, almost as hasty as his dis- 
patch of the plate of soup mentioned in one of his 
letters, and which gave to his opposers such a fine 
chance for ridicule. 

General Taylor spoke also of Mr. Webster, but with 
much more of good humor than characterized his talk 
about Scott and Clay. He said laughingly that Mr. 
Webster had made a very smooth speech, but had lost 
one of the leaves, and had to make a supplement the 
next day. He had been told by a mutual friend that \ 
Mr. Webster would support his administration, but if 



438 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

he head ever made such a pledge he had forgotten it. 
lie mentioned liaving been shown a newspaper arti- 
cle, which stated that he had not consulted Mr. Web- 
ster or Mr. Clay about his cabinet, which he said was 
very true. All this was spoken directly to Mr. Mil- 
ler, without his appearing to notice that anybody else 
was in the room. It seemed to both of us so ex- 
traordinary, that after leaving the White House I 
suggested that it would not be proper to make what 
was said publicly known ; and Mr. Miller requested 
me to abstain from publishing it until there was no 
longer any danger of its doing harm. 

It is curious to compare Taylor's estimate of Scott 
with what the latter says of him in his autobiogra- 
phy, vol. ii. page 382 : — 

" General Taylor's elevation to the presidency, the 
result of military success, though a marvel, was not 
a curse to the country. Mr. Webster in his strong 
idiomatic English, said of the nomination, ' It was not 
fit to be made.' 

" With a good store of common sense, General Tay- 
lor's mind had not been enlarged and refreshed by 
reading, or by much converse with the world. Ri- 
gidity of ideas was the consequence. The frontiers 
and small military posts had been his home. Hence 
he was quite ignorant for his rank, and quite bigoted 
in his ignorance. Plis simplicity was child-like, and 
with immeasurable prejudices, amusing and incorri- 
gible, well suited to the tender age. Yet this old 
soldier and neophyte statesman had the true basis of 
a great character; pure, uncorrupted morals, combined 
with indomitable courage. He had no vice but pre- 
judice." 

This strikes me as a pretty fair, although certainly 



JACOB W. MILLER. 439 

not a friendly appreciation of General Taylor's fit- 
ness for the presidential chair. The triumphant elec- 
tion of Jackson affected all our subsequent elections. 
The statesman has gone under, and a soldier will be 
the man, whenever a war occurs to give him a chance 
of prominence. Scott has been as yet the only fail- 
ure. 
/f After the demise of the Whig party, Mr. Miller 
attached himself to the Republicans, although not an 
abolitionist. He liad all his life acted in opposition to 
the Democrats, deplored the existence of slavery, and 
was hostile to its extension. He opposed Mr. Clay's 
compromise measures, and regarded the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise as the prelude to an attempt 
at dissolution of the Union. As a matter of course 
he was a warm supporter of the general government 
in the measures adopted for preventing or suppress- 
ing the rebellion. 

After his retirement from the senate, he returned 
more actively to the business of his profession, which 
he had never entirely relinquished ; but his so long 
engrossment in other pursuits made it irksome to 
him, and failing health soon rendered him more and 
more averse to exertion. He argued a few cases in 
the courts in which I sat, with marked ability. But 
a cold which affected him in 1861, ripened into con- 
sumption, to which he was constitutionally prone, so 
that in the following year he died. He may be truly 
characterized as having been an amiable Christian 
irentleman ; of abilities not of the higrhest, but above 
the common order ; and as one who lived beloved and 
respected, and died lamented by all who knew him. 



K 



CHAPTER XV. 

LAWYERS I HAVE KNOWK. 

THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN". JOHN RUTHERFORD. WILLIAM CHET- 
WOOD. JOHN J. CHETWOOD. AARON 0. DAYTON. WILLIAM N. 
JEFFERS. ALPHONSO L. EAKIN. JOSIAH HARRISON. FRANCIS L. 
MACCULLOCH. RICHARD P. THOMPSON. ASA WHITEHEAD. JO- 
SEPH W. SCOTT. 

rpHEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN was the grand- 
son of tlie Rev. John Frehnghuysen, who came 
from Holland in the year 1720, and ministered more 
than a quarter of a century to the Dutch settlers in 
Somerset and Middlesex counties. His grandmother, 
the daughter of a rich merchant of Amsterdam (after 
the death of her first husband, long known as Juf- 
frouw Hardenbergh), was a woman of keen intellect, 
strong will, and ardent piety, and from her, as well as 
her husband, his descendants no doubt derived that 
high character which distinguishes them to the pres- 
ent day. His father, Frederick Frelinghuysen, was 
educated at Princeton, and was a distinguished law- 
yer, and early in life a member of the Provincial and 
Continental Congress. During the Revolution he was 
a captain of artillery ; in that capacity being engaged 
in the battle with the Hessians at Trenton, and after- 
wards as a colonel of militia at several engagements 
with the enemy. In 1793 he was elected senator of 
the United States, a place which he resigned in 1796. 
During the administration of General Washington he 
had a command as major-general of a portion of the 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 441 

militia sent into Western Pennsylvania to quell the 
disturbance known as the Whiskey Insurrection. He 
died in 1804, at the age of fifty-one, and, as is be- 
lieved, justly entitled to the eulogiuni engraved on 
his tombstone : — 

" He died greatly beloved and lamented. Endowed by nature 
with superior talents, he was from his youth intrusted by his 
country with the most iminirtant concerns. At the bar he was 
eloquent, in the senate he was wise, in the field he was brave. 
Candid, generous, and just, he was constant and ardent in his friend- 
ship. Ever the patron and protector of merit, he gave his hand to 
the young, his counsel to the middle-aged, his support to declining- 
years. He left to his children the rich legacy of a life unsullied by 
a stain, and adorned with numerous expressions of public useful- 
ness and private beneficence." 

My father, who knew him during the Revolution, 
and afterwards as a fellow-member of the legislature, 
always spoke of him with the highest respect, as an 
able legislator, and rather remarkable for his sprightly 
vivacity. 

Three of General Frelinghuysen's sons were law- 
yers. John, the eldest, born in 1776, admitted to the 
bar in 1797, died in 1833. He was highly respected, 
and of deep and ardent piety ; not distinguished as 
an advocate, but of excellent business talents, and ex- 
tensively occupied in public affairs, holding the office 
of surrogate, and frequently a member of the legis- 
lature. In that capacity I had the opportunity of 
knowing how deserving he was of the esteem in 
which he was always held. 

Frederick FreUnghuj^sen, the younger brother, 
born in 1788, a graduate of Princeton, was licensed 
as an attorney in 1810. He was distinguished as an 
advocate, and had a large practice, but he died in 
1820, at the early age of thirty-two. Both these 



442 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

brothers, I believe are still represented at the bar, by 
their descendants. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, the 
distinguished senator, is a son of Frederick ; he was 
adopted and educated by his uncle Theodore, who 
had" no children. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen was born in 1787, grad- 
uated at Princeton in 1804, studied law with Richard 
Stockton, was admitted to the bar in 1808, and died 
in 1862. I have always esteemed it one of the great 
blessings of my life that I was brought early into 
association with him, and could claim him as my 
iriend. While he was a member of the senate at 
Washington I had occasion to pay a visit to Boston, 
and took with me a letter of introduction from him 
lo a clerical friend there, who introduced me to sev- 
eral of the best religious circles of that city, as the 
friend of Mr. Frelinghuysen, and upon one occasion 
I was for a short time mistaken for Mr. Frelinghuy- 
sen himself The manner in which I was received 
\)y persons who had no personal acquaintance with 
him, gave unmistakable evidence of the high char- 
acter he had justly acquired ; and I was enabled to 
understand more fully the sentiment which induced 
Fulke Greville, created Lord Brooke by Queen Eliz- 
abeth, to desire to have inscribed on his tomb, that 
he was a friend of Sir Philip Sidney. The powers 
of Mr. Frelinghuysen were not equal to those of Mr. 
Webster, or of Mr. Southard, or of several others of 
our distinguished men • but in many respects he was 
superior to any of them. 

First of all in importance, his piety was deep and 
M.rdent. Of all the men I have ever known, he was 
the most faithful and untirino; in exercisins: a Chris- 
tian influence over others. This indeed may be truly 



THEODORE FKELINGHUYSEN. 443 

said to have been his great talent. His piety was so 
unostentatious and yet so manifest, his manner of 
address so winning, his integrity so complete, and his 
desire to do good so intense, that he coiihl not fail to 
exercise a u'ood influence over those with whom he 
came in contact. Even those who would turn with 
disgust from any attempt of others to inti'oduce relig- 
ious subjects, would listen to him at least with as- 
sumed patience, and thank him for his faithfulness. 
His natural temper was quick and irritable, and 
although generally under complete control, I once \ 
witnessed a manifestation of it, unexpected and at the j 
moment painful. But this quick sensibility was one 
of the elements of his power. It was manifested in 
his voice and demeanor. He was indeed the most \ 
persuasive speaker I have ever listened to. His \ 
speeches, when reported and read, cannot be said to 
be at all remarkable. But like Whitefield, and all 
great natural orators, his voice and manner were such 
as to bring his hearers into entire sympathy with his 
own feelings, and thus to overmaster them. 

It cannot be said that Mr. Frelinghuysen was un- - 
commonly learned ; but he had a rapid, correct, and ' ^, 
comprehensive mind, which enabled him fully to un- 
derstand any subject to which he applied himself 
His judgment was quick and seldom erroneous. He 
was thus a safe counselor as well as a most success- 
ful advocate. 

With these great advantages, it is not wonderful 
that he took so high a position among competitors 
distinguished for the best qualities of successful law- 
yers. From his admission to the bar until he with- 
drew from the profession in 1838, a period of thirty 
years, he was fully employed, and engaged in most 



444 KEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of the important causes arising within the sphere 
of his practice. In 1817 he was chosen by a joint 
meeting, a majority of which were of different politics 
from his, attorney-general of the State, and was re- 
elected, holding the office until he was elected to the 
senate of the United States in 1829. In 1826 he was 
elected one of the justices of the supreme court, a 
place which he declined to accept. 

As a senator, he did not quite rank with those called 
our greatest men, of whom not a few were his associ- 
ates ; but no one exercised a more salutary influence, 
and was listened to with more respect. He filled the 
place in the senate which was for a much longer pe- 
riod filled by Mr. Wilberforce in the British parlia- 
ment. His voice was always heard on the right side 
of all questions partaking of a religious or moral 
character, like the Sunday mail and Cherokee Indian 
bills. The congressional prayer-meeting, which I 
found in full activity several years after he left the 
senate, if not originated by him, was as constantly 
attended by him as the sittings of the senate itself 
There is indeed no reason to doubt that his personal 
influence at Washington was equal if not superior to 
that of any other individual. Those who differed 
from him in regard to the political questions of the 
day, did not fail to do justice to the purity of his mo- 
tives and the integrity of his character. 

When the term of Mr. Frelinghuysen was about to 
expire, and it was known that the election in this 
State, in the fall of 1834, would determine the ques- 
tion of his reelection, I was among those who, like 
himself, had not become reconciled to General Jack- 
son as a chief magistrate of the nation, and for the 
last time in my life, impelled by an anxious desire to 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 445 

see him retained in a place he so well filled, I engaged 
earnestly in the political canvass. It proved a vain 
effort. The popularity of Jackson carried awa}^ the 
public voice, and brought into the list of supporters 
a large number of the old Federalists of the State, 
who, followino; the lead of Hamilton, were dissatisfied 
with the Adamses, both father and son. 

It has been supposed by some that a conscientious 
man like Mr. Frelinghuysen could not engage as an 
advocate, to plead for those he was not entirely con- 
vinced had the ri^-lit side of a cause in which he took 
a fee. But he certainly never so misconceived the 
duty of a lawyer. To do this would be to determine 
that the profession of an advocate is not a lawful call- 
ing, and cannot be undertaken and practiced by one 
who desires to be governed by the holy law of God; 
and not only this, but that no Christian can rightly 
employ a lawyer. If the calling be lawful for any 
one, it is not only lawful for the Christian, but it is 
exceedingly desirable that all who follow it be not 
merely professedly, but truly godly and righteous. 
All who have even a slight acquaintance with the 
complicated nature of the laws in a civilized society, 
and with the difficulty rightly to administer such 
laws, so as to do equal justice to the ignorant and the 
intelliorent, the obscure and the influential, must see 
that the existence of a trained body of men, ready to 
aid those who have occasion to appeal to the laws, 
either as complainants or as defendants, is indispensa- 
ble. So indispensable, indeed, that the laws of this 
and of probably all other well regulated governments 
provide, not only that a litigant party shall be enti- 
tled to employ an advocate if he has the means of 
compensating him for his services, but that if he has 



446 REMINISCENCES OF NEW .JERSEY. 

not, he shall have one assigned to him by the court, 
to perform this service gratuitously. 

The lawyer who should undertake to make it his 
rule to eno-agce in no case he was not convinced be- 
forehand was just, or who should determine to aban- 
don a case the moment he felt persuaded he was on 
the wrong side, would set very dangerous snares for 
his conscience. To avoid falling into one error he 
would be pretty sure to fall into a greater. Every 
lawyer of experience soon learns that cases, the legal- 
ity or justice of which have appeared to him doubtful, 
have turned out, or at any rate have been thought by 
those whose duty it was to decide them, perfectly just 
and legal. In fact a majority of the causes brought 
into the courts are more or less doubtful, either as to 
the facts or the law, and often as to both. Many 
things may be properly urged on both sides of such 
questions ; and the very object of a public discussion 
by skilled advocates on both sides, is to afford the 
means of fully understanding and rightly deciding 
them. With all the aid thus afforded, judicial opin- 
ions are not always correct; but without them the 
dancer of error would be fiir a^reater. 

But while all this is perfectly true, and was well 
understood and acted upon by Mr. Frelinghuysen, it 
does not follow that the profession is free from very 
peculiar dangers. The wish to succeed is natural, 
and without it an advocate would be apt to lack 
enero-y and earnest effort. To keep this wish w^ithin 
due bounds, and never to permit it to induce him to 
aid in any attempt to pervert the truth or the law, is 
the duty of every truly conscientious lawyer, and one 
that will keep him ever vigilant. The temptation to 
swerve from the strict path of integrity is constantly 



THEODORE FRELTNGHUYSEN. 447 

besetting him, and as constantly calls for self-denial 
and moral courage, to enable him to conquer it. 

The constant desire and aim of the lawyer should 
be to aid the court and jury in arriving at the truth. 
"While he argues for a fee, and is justly entitled to live 
by his profession, he should never forget that he is 
one of the officers of justice, and, as such, has taken 
upon himself solemn responsibilities. His duty to his 
client should be, not the highest in his regard, but 
second to the claims of truth and justice. One great 
duty he should never forget, and that is the duty of 
discouraging unnecessary litigation. Clients are fre- 
quently not only blinded by self-interest, but inflamed 
by passion. To take advantage of such feelings is a 
worse sin than he is guilty of who indulges them. 
The lawyer who upon the retrospect of his profes- \ 
sional life can feel that he has faithfully endeavored 
to be a wise and safe counselor, has abstained from 
seekino- to o;ain advantas-e from the weakness or 
passions of those employing him, has endeavored to 
heal rather than to widen breaches, has declined to 
obsciu^e or pervert the truth in the examination of 
witnesses, has kept himself free from a desire to tri- 
umph over an adversary at the expense of right, and 
has desired to fail wdien the cause of justice so re- 
quired, may look back upon a safe and honorable 
career; and upon such a professional career as this 
Mr. Frelinghuysen undoubtedly did look back. 

As a public prosecutor of criminals, while careful to 
enforce the laws ftxithfully, he was never willing to 
urt»-e a conviction unless the case was reasonnblv clenr 
of doubt. He considered it one of the advantages of 
this position that it gave him more discretion in the 
conduct of the case, and freed him from the pressure 



i48 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

of clients prone to think that because he had received 
their money he was bound to gratify their sometimes 
unreasonable expectations. In exercising this discre- 
tion, however, it may have happened, as it once did 
to myself, when prosecuting an accused person for 
murder, before the statute had made a distinction be- 
tween murder of the first and second degree, and 
nothing appeared to indicate any malice, but the 
mere fact that a blow had been given from which 
death ensued, and I declined to insist upon any other 
verdict than manslaughter, Chief Justice Ewing not 
only felt it his duty to instruct the jury that malice 
ought to be implied from the fact of killing, as was 
undoubtedly then the severe rule of the common law, 
but he decidedly though gently rebuked the prose- 
cutor for having failed in what he considered his duty 
so to insist. I may add that I was not grieved either 
by the rebuke, or by the verdict of the jury for the 
minor offense. 

The profession of a lawyer in full practice is not 
only arduous, but to a truly conscientious man is beset 
with many and peculiar trials. These trials are in- 
creased, I think, by the erroneous opinions in regard to 
his duty which have been expressed by those who, 
without any adequate knowledge of his true position, 
Iiave undertaken to instruct him. Dymond, a Friend, 
takes the ground in his " Moral Philosophy," that a 
conscientious lawyer cannot aid a criminal in escaping 
justice by taking advantage of a defect in the indict- 
ment, or a defendant in evading the paj^ment of an 
honest debt by pleading for him the statute of limita- 
tions ; and even Mr. Hoffman, a lawyer himself, in his 
excellent work, entitled " A Course of Legal Study," 
states as one of his rules, " I will never plead the 



THEODORE FRELLXGHUYSEN. 449 

statute of limitation when based on the mere efflux 
of time, for if my cHent is conscious he owes a debt, 
and has no other defense than the legal bar, he shall 
never make me a partner in his knavery." 

Edward O'Brien, an Irish barrister, and evidently a 
most sincere Christian, who died in 1840, at an earl}' 
age, in a work entitled, "The Lawyer; his Character 
and Rule of Holy Life," published by Cary & Hart, in 
1843, and which ought to be carefully read by every 
lawyer, goes so far as to declare : " First he makes it 
known that he will undertake the conduct of none but 
just causes; and here he esteems those causes alone 
to be just which natural law, or positive laws not con- 
tradicted by natural laws, do make such. The judge 
is appointed to administer the laws according to their 
letter; he is bound to do so by the command of the 
prince and the oath of his office, and if at any time he 
is obliged to give a judgment which he knows must 
work injustice, he does so against his will. But the 
lawyer who being couilsel and assists his client will- 
ingly, no law compelling him, counsels and assists him 
in that which is unjust, becomes before God a partaker 
in his client's evil deeds." 

All this proceeds, T think, upon a mistake as to the 
real position of the lawyer. The earnest desire of 
these writers to enforce upon the lawyer's conscience 
the claims of justice has misled them, as the popular 
notion that the advocate is simply the representative 
of his client, has misled others. It is an error into 
which I think Mr. Frelinghuysen did not fall, although 
undoubtedly he did feel and act upon the principle, 
that it is far safer to err on this side of the question 
than on the opposite. 

It is a plain truth that no one can properly do that 

29. 



450 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

for another which he cannot honestly do for himself; 
provided, that when he acts for the other, he acts as 
freely and with the same moral relations as when he 
acts for himself. But the lawyer does not so act when 
he appears for his client. So far as he is merely his 
adviser and friend, and this is a part of his character, 
lie is undoubtedly bound honestly to advise and per- 
suade his client to be not only just but generous ; but 
he is something more than a mere willing counselor 
and friend ; he is a minister of the law, holding a situa- 
tion as a sworn officer of the court, whose duty it is to 
assist parties in bringing their cases before the court, 
that they may be adjudicated according to law. A 
man who is entitled to sue or def^end, in forma paiiperis, 
may compel this service, without fee or reward, and 
in all other cases, upon being suitably paid, the duty 
must be the same, and in case of necessity. I suppose 
may be and would be enjoined by the judge. 

In my opinion it must be an extreme case which 
will justify a lawyer in refusing to apply plain prin- 
ciples of law either in the prosecution or defense of 
actions. Taking the instance of the statute of limita- 
tions, in regard to which many have doubted, and 
which at one time even our judges regarded as "a 
rogue's law," and did their best to evade, experience 
has proved its beneficial influence. Whether it shall 
be interposed in any particular case, or whether he 
shall wait to be sued for a just demand, depends on cir- 
cumstances, and is a matter for the conscience of the 
party, which the law does not meddle with. The plea 
of this statute must be interposed in a technical man- 
ner, which ordinarily no one but a lawyer can do. The 
very design of his office is to bring forward the legal 
question for the decision of the judge. By what right, 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 451 

then, shall he refuse ? Shall he say, " Sir, In my judg- 
ment, your defense is unconscientious." His client 
may truly answer, " The law gives me this defense 
unconditionally; my conscience is my own, and for 
the right use of it I am accountable only to God. I 
respect and have duly weighed your advice ; but you 
have assumed a public office, speciall}^ charged with 
the duty of enabling litigants to avail themselves of 
the law, and you have no more right to deny me the 
plea, if I insist upon it, than the judge has to overrule 
it." Sliall he say, "Seek a more pliant advocate?" 
But all advocates are bound by the same moral law 
and ouo'lit to be Christians, and if one oui2;ht to refuse 
the plea so ought all. And we have this anomalj^' : the 
law has provided a bar against every action not com- 
menced within a certain time, and has provided an 
officer to set up that bar, but it must depend on the 
conscience of the officer whether it shall be enforced. 
If this view^ of the subject is not correct, I think it 
must be conceded that no conscientious man can 
safely follow the business of an advocate. The whole 
system of human law is, from the necessity of the 
case, artificial and imperfect, by which no more is 
effected than by general rules to approach as near to 
justice as the imperfect nature of all human institu- 
tions will allow. Some contracts to be legal must be 
in writing ; an infant cannot legally bind himself at 
all, except for necessaries ; a deed or will must be 
formally executed, or it does not operate ; an indict- 
ment for a crime must have certain formalities. Yet 
all these and many other regulations of daily occur- 
rence may work a particular wrong. Must the lawyer, 
before he can conscientiously apply these rules, be 
satisfied that his client may conscientiously avail him- 



452 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

self of them? Tf such be his duty, it must be con- 
fessed that he had better never enter into the pro- 
fession. 

In the language of Hooker, " So natural is the 
union of religion with justice, that we may boldly 
deem there is neither where both are not. For how 
should they be unfeignedly just, whom religion doth 
not cause to be such, or they religious which are not 
found such by the proof of their just actions. If they 
which employ their labor and travail about the public 
administration of justice, follow it only as a trade, 
with an unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of 
gain ; being not in heart persuaded that justice is 
God's own work, and themselves his agents in this 
business ; the sentence of right God's own verdict, 
and themselves his priests to deliver it; formalities of 
justice do but serve to smother right, and that which 
was necessarily ordained for the comtnon good, is, 
through shameful abuse, made the cause of common 
misery." 

The advocate who willingly aids in perverting legal 
proceedings, to enable unscrupulous persons to plun- 
der the public, by fraudulent schemes, or by the cor- 
rupt management of railroads or other corporations ; 
or who so conducts the defense of criminals as to at- 
tract the general applause of notorious offenders, in- 
somuch that they instinctively apply to him, ought 
not to be accounted an honorable man, and certainly 
cannot be a Christian. And when such men are found 
to do these things for enormous fees, they cannot be 
otherwise regarded than as a reproach to the profes- 
sion. But althouo;h there is too much reason to fear 
that men aspiring to hold an honorable rank in the 
profession do sometimes err even to this extent, the 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 453 

much more common error into which they fall is to 
willingly and earnestly advocate grounds of" defense 
for criminals which they cannot help knowing are im- 
proper or entirely unsupported by the evidence, the 
most flagrant example of which is the plea of insan- 
ity in certain cases of murder. 

And when it is considered how important legal 
knowledge is, and how large a part lawyers neces- 
sarily take in the proceedings of our republican in- 
stitutions, the importance of this subject can hardly 
be overrated. Many persons are greatly prejudiced 
against lawyers ; but what would be the end of a 
government depending upon a system of law, if those 
w^ho are trained to expound it are corrupt, or are 
discarded ? Lawyers are exposed to special tempta- 
tions and have need of all their vigilance, and indeed 
of earnest prayer, to overcome them. But long ex- 
perience has satisfied me, that as a class they are quite 
as honest as any other class of the community ; and 
1 trust it is not mere partiality makes me say that 
upon the whole they are even the most trustworthy 
men we have. There are knaves in all trades and 
professions ; but a lawyer of the average honesty of 
disposition is in general better acquainted with the 
true rules of morality and with the evils of departing 
from them, and hence, as he ought to be, is more to 
be relied on to observe them ; and the extent to 
which they are trusted is evidence that this is the 
sober sentiment of the community. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen was a man of prayer, and was in 
the daily habit of seeking aid from the only true 
source of power to resist temptation. Could every 
lawyer be persuaded to adopt the prayer given by 
O'Brien, he might hope never greatly to err : " 



454 EEMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Lord, our heavenly Father, who in thy providence 
hast appointed governors, thy ministers, to dispense 
thy hiws among all nations; grant that we and all 
thy servants ministering in things pertaining to justice, 
may faithfully fulfill the duties of our calling with a 
single eye to thy glory, and a humble dependence 
upon thy heavenly blessing. Mercifully, we beseech 
thee, turn us away from all undue love of wealth and 
earthly power ; keep us from all pride, malice, and 
evil speaking ; preserve us from the fear of evil men, 
and the contagion of ill example ; strengthen in us 
the love of truth, justice, and mercy ; and so quicken 
our hearts with love towards thee, that we, loving thee 
above all things, may so love our fellow-creatures, 
even as thou hast loved us. Grant this, Lord, for 
Jesus Christ's sake, our only Saviour and Redeemer. 
Amen." 

Feeling deeply the dangerous temptations, and the 
incessant fatigue to which a large practice exposed 
him, Mr. Frelinghuysen, was often on the point of 
giving it up, and becoming a preacher of the gospel. 
Satisfied, however, not only from his own experience, 
but from the advice of judicious friends that he was 
probably doing as much good for the cause of religion, 
in his situation at the bar and in public life, as he 
could in the ministry, he resisted these temptations, 
and continued at the bar until he had passed the 
middle of life. And no man was more fjiithful in 
using every suitable opportunity of exercising an in- 
fluence for good. But few, if any, of his associates at 
the bar, or in public life, were left without his having 
taken some opportunity of bringing before them, 
orally or in writing, the subject of personal religion. 
And seldom did he fail to make a deep and serious 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. 455 

impression upon those he addressed. The influence 
of a few well cliosen, sympathetic, earnest words, like 
his most impassioned addresses to a jur}', often seemed 
irresistible. I doubt if any layman in the land, or if 
few or any ministers of the gospel, ever made so many 
personal ap[)cals on the subject of religion as during 
his life he did. 

He was an early and earnest supporter of the meas- 
ures adopted to discourage the use of intoxicating 
drinks, and besides his own example of entire absti- 
nence from their use, made many powerful addresses 
in favor of tiie practice of total abstinence. But in 
this as in all his eiforts to do good, he was careful not 
to overstep the bounds of Divine truth and reason- 
able prudence, as so many have done, to the great in- 
jurj^ of this and other benevolent objects. 

Early in 1839 he was chosen chancellor of the Uni- 
versity of New York, and after considerable hesita- 
tion he accepted the situation and removed to New 
York. He had attained an age when, like most of 
those who have enjoyed a large practice as an ad- 
vocate, he began to feel a growing repugnance to the 
conflicts of the profession, especially in the trial of 
causes involving disputed flicts, and such a decision 
was to be expected. But I have always doubted 
whether he would not have done better to remain 
M'here he was ; and am by no means certain that he 
did not himself regret the change. 

In 1844 he was selected by the whig party as 
their candidate for vice-president, with Mr. Clay, then 
the great leader of the party, as the candidate for the 
presidency. Greatly to the surprise of their supporters, 
these popular men failed to be elected. The great 
conflict between the North and the South, in regard 



456 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

to slavery, soon became the absorbing question, and 
resulted in the triumph of the party of the north, 
which assumed the name, once so denounced, of Re- 
publicans. Although never ranked among abolition- 
ists, but a supporter of the Colonization Society, Mr. 
Frelinghuysen threw the whole influence of his high 
character on the side of the Republicans, He did not 
live to see shivery finally overthrown, but so long as 
he lived he aided to the extent of his power in the 
maintenance of the Union. In 1841 he was chosen 
President of the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions : and in 1 846, President of the 
American Bible Society. In the year 1850, he was 
chosen President of Rutger's College, and removed to 
New Brunswick, thus in the evening of his days re- 
turning to the cherished spot where its morning 
began, and was permitted to end a life of singular 
distinction and usefulness, dying at the age of seventy- 
five years. 

John Rdtherfurd, with whom I became well ac- 
quainted while we were associated as commissioners 
on the part of New Jersey, for settling the contro- 
versy with New York respecting the waters between 
the two States, was licensed as an attorney in 1782. 
He was the son of Walter Rutherfurd and a dauo-hter 
of James Alexander, and was born in the city of New 
York in the year 1760. Having graduated at Prince- 
ton College, he studied law partly with Richard Stock- 
ton, the elder, and partly with Judge Paterson. 

Directly after his admission to the bar, he married 
a daughter of General Lewis Morris, of Morrisania, and 
settled at first in the city of New York. Being one 
of the vestry of Trinity Church, he had the care of 



JOHN RUTHERFURD. 457 

the real estate of that wealthy corporation, and his 
name is found in the Directory of 1786, among the 
lawyers, as of 50 Broadway. In 1787 he took up -his 
residence at his farm called " Tranquillity," in Sussex 
County, and the next year was elected a member of 
tlje Assembly. Having a large property, as one of the 
proprietors of East Jersey, and otherwise, he does not 
appear to have engaged in active business as a lawyer. 
In 1790, when he had barely reached the age of thirty, 
required by the Constitution, he was elected a mem- 
ber of the senate of the United States, in the place of 
my uncle, Jonathan Elmer, who was one of the first 
senators, and drew the class whose seats became va- 
cant at the end of two years, and was denied a reelec- 
tion, as was said, because he was absent when the vote 
was taken fixing the seat of the general government. 
Mr. Rutherfurd was reelected in 1796, but resigned 
in 1798. As during his time the senate sat with 
closed doors, but little is known of the part he took 
in the business transacted. 

About the time he left the senate, he took up his 
residence at Trenton, at a beautiful site on the banks 
of the Delaware, where he continued until 1808, when 
he removed to a seat on the east bank of the Passaic, 
a few miles above Newark. At that place he died in 
1840. 

Although not following the profession for which he 
was educated, his time was fully occupied in the care 
of his large possessions, in the business of the East 
Jersey Proprietors, of whom he was president from 
1804, and in various public affairs of consequence. 
During ten years from 1801, he was a commissioner 
with Simeon De Witt and Governeur Morris, to lay 
out the city of New York, by whom the plan of the 
city was adopted, and the survey and map completed. 



458 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

In 1827, in conjunction with Richard Stockton, 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, James Parker, and myself, 
he -was a commissioner appointed by Governor Wil- 
liamson, in pursuance of a law of this State passed in 
182-4, entitled "An act for the settlement of territorial 
limits and jurisdiction between the States of New 
Jersey and New York." There had been an attempt 
to settle this long pending dispute in 1807, when 
Aaron Ogden, Alexander C. McWhorter, WilHam S. 
Pennington, James Parker, and Lewis Condict were 
the commissioners on the part of New Jersey, who 
had a long and rather angry controversy on the sub- 
ject with the New York commissioners, published by 
order of the legislature, without any result. The 
commissioners appointed in 1827 had several con- 
ferences with the New York commissioners at Newark 
and Albany, but failed' to agree upon any terms of 
settlement. So little disposition was there at that 
time on the part of New York to yield any part of 
their pretensions, that while we were actually in con- 
ference at x^lbany, a bill passed one branch of the 
legislature in session there, w^hich afterwards became 
a law, asserting and declaring the boundary line of 
New York to extend " along the west shore at low 
water-mark of the Hudson River, of the Kill van Kull, 
of the sound between Staten Island and New Jersey, 
and of Raritan Bay to Sandy Hook." The proposition 
on both sides, and the argument in behalf of New 
Jersey, will be found fully stated in a message com- 
municated to the legislature of New Jersey by Gov- 
ernor Williamson in February, 1828, and printed for 
the State. It is somewhat curious to notice, that the 
orio-inal right of New Jersey to the whole of Staten 
Island, was much plainer than her right to the middle 



WILLIAM CHETWOOD. 459 

of the Hudson River, as we claimed, and as New York 
finally conceded to iis. 

Between 1828 and 1833, many conflicts arose be- 
tween persons claiming rights on the shores and 
oyster beds west of the middle of the Hudson, and of 
the waters between Staten Island and New Jersey, 
which at times came near to actual warfare. In 1833 
new commissioners were appointed on the part of New 
York, and Frelinghuysen, Parker, and myself were 
reappointed for New Jersey ; and it soon appeared 
that we were to be met with an entirely different 
spirit from that which had before prevailed. Instead 
of stubborn persistence in the claims put forward on 
the tw^o sides, the single question was, how we could 
arrange terms of settlement that would be just and 
equitable, and prove acceptable to the people of the 
tw^o States. It being: sugri^rested on behalf of New 
Jersey, that, waiving all considerations of abstract 
right. New York should acknowledge the true bound- 
ary line to be the middle of the river, and that New 
Jersey should agree that New York should have all 
such rights west of that line as might be deemed im- 
portant to secure to that State the risiht to rearulate 
the police and the quarantine on the whole of the 
waters dividing the States ; this proposition, after 
time had been taken for full consideration and con- 
sultation, was acceded to by the New York commis- 
sioners. The result was the consummation of the 
agreement entered into September 16th, 1833, which 
was ratified by the legislatures of both the States, and 
approved by the Congress of the United States. 

William Ciietwood was the son of John Chetwood, 
one of the justices of the supreme court, and was born 



460 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

:it Elizabethtown in 1771. The family were originally 
Quakers, and settled first in Salem County, but after 
the removal of Judge Chetwood to Elizabethtown be- 
came connected with the Episcopal Church. William 
Chetwood graduated at Princeton in 1792, and then 
studied law with his father. He was a volunteer, and 
served on the staff of General Lee during the Whiskey 
Insurrection, having the rank then or afterwards of 
major, by which title he was usually addressed when 
I first knew him. 

He was Ucensed as an attorney in 1796, as coun- 
selor in 1799, and in 1816 was made a sergeant at 
law. He married a daughter of Colonel Francis Bar- 
ber, killed during the Revolutionary War by the fall- 
ing of a tree, and settled in his native place, where he 
resided until his death in 1857, at the advanced age 
of eighty-six years and six months. 

Living in different parts of the State, I only knew 
him as for some years a constant attendant on the 
sittings of the supreme court at Trenton. He was 
one of those indefatigable workers who, by persistent 
industry, are pretty sure to succeed. A story used to 
be told of him, that upon one occasion he went to the 
court in his own carriage, as the custom then was, ex- 
pecting to remain only a day, and without a change 
of linen. Unexpectedly detained, it became necessary 
for him to go up to Sussex County without returning 
home ; and he turned his shirt, so as to appear as de- 
cently as circumstances would permit. But before he 
could procure a change he found it expedient to turn 
it back again, and so arrived at home about as he left, 
but with a shirt rather the worse for wear. This was 
the opposite of Chief Justice Black, of Pennsylvania, 
whose wife, it has been reported, when she examined 



JOHN JOSEPH CHETWOOD. 461 

his clothing upon his return from a circuit, found 
three shirts missing, which after considerable search 
were found all safe on his back. 

Mr. Chetwood was elected a member of Congress 
bj the Jackson party, being one of those Federalists 
who preferred him to Adams. Afterwards, however, 
he acted with the Whigs. He accumulated a very 
handsome estate, a considerable part of which I have 
understood was invested in New York insurance com- 
pany stocks, and was lost by ^ the great fire which 
occurred in 1835, leaving him, however, a competent 
support. He had retired from active business before 
I became a judge. 

John Joseph Chetwood was a grandson of Judge 
Chetwood, and the son of Dr. John Chetwood, a physi- 
cian of large practice who died of the cholera in 1832, 
surviving but a few hours after he was attacked. 
The son was born in 1800, and graduated at Prince- 
ton in 1818. He studied law with his uncle William, 
was licensed as an attorney in 1821, as a counselor in 
1825, and was called as a sergeant at law in 1837. 
He married a granddaughter of General Elias Dayton, 
and resided at Elizabeth town, where he died in 1861. 

He was a member of council, and surrogate of the 
County of Essex. For many years he was prosecutor 
of the pleas of Union County, and an active business 
man, highly esteemed in and out of his profession, 
and although of a generous disposition, successful, as I 
have understood, in accumulating property. He was 
a trustee of Burlington CoUege, and ready to second 
every effort in aid of education. In social intercourse 
I found him a genial companion, well informed, and 
well deserving the popularity he evidently enjoyed 
amono; his neighbors and friends. 



462 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Aaron 0. Dayton was born at Elizabethtown in 
1796, and was the son of Eiias B. Dayton, of that 
place, his mother being a daughter of Dr. Thomas B. 
Chandler. His grandfather, General EHas Dayton, 
was a well known and distinguished officer during the 
War of the Revolution. Their ancestor, Ralph Day- 
ton, came from England to Boston, and thence to East 
Hampton, Long Island, about the year 1G50. His son 
Jonathan, father of General EHas Dayton, emigrated 
to Elizabethtown about the year 1720. 

Young Aaron Ogden Dayton, named in honor of 
Governor Aaron Ogden, after the usual preparatory 
studies in the grammar school at his native place, en- 
tered Princeton College, and graduated with the high- 
est honor in 1813, in the same class with Governor 
Pennington. After the usual course of study with 
Aaron Ogden, he was licensed as an a.ttorney in 1817, 
and as a counselor in 1821, being a little more than 
two years behind me. Directly after obtaining his 
first license, he went out to Cincinnati with a view to 
settle, and was admitted to the bar there. But he 
soon returned, and selected Salem as his place of 
business. During his residence and practice here, I 
became well acquainted with him, meeting him in 
business and in social intercourse, and we remained 
friends to the end of his life. 

In 1823 he was elected a member of the Assembly 
from the County of Salem, in opposition to the regular 
democratic ticket, and we were associated and gener- 
ally acted together in the legislature. He was the 
youngest member of the house, taking an active and 
influential part in all the proceedings. The next 
year he declined being a candidate, but entered 
heartily into the contest for the presidency in behalf 



AARON 0. DAYTON. 463 

of General Jackson. He was a member of the con- 
vention for the nomination of electors, and drafted 
the address which aided in carrying the State for 
their candidate. Just before the election, I was much 
surprised to hear General Wall say Jackson would 
carry the State, and did not believe it possible ; but I 
did not know, as he did, that so many of the leading 
Federalists were prepared to advocate him. 

In 1S25 Mr. Dayton removed to Jersey City, and 
the next year to New York, proposing to engage in 
his profession there. But he was soon induced to en- 
ter the political arena, and in 1828 was elected by the 
democratic party, as the Jacksonians were now called, 
to the legislature, by a large majority. Afterwards he 
was appointed a master of chancery and injunction 
master, then of some importance, for the city of New 
York and Long Island. But owing to the increasing 
severity of a nervous disease which culminated in his 
death, he was induced to abandon the law, and to ac- 
cept a position in the diplomatic bureau of the state 
department at Washington, tendered to him upon the 
recommendation of General W^all, then a senator. 

In 1836 he was appointed chief clerk of the depart- 
ment of state, then of even more importance than now, 
and for which he was well fitted. In 1838 he was 
appointed fourth auditor of the treasury, charged with 
the settlement of the navy accounts, and remained in 
that office through all the varying administrations un- 
til his death in 1858. He occupied that position dur- 
ing the time I was a member of the house of repre- 
sentatives, and was universally regarded as one of 
the best officers of the o-overnment. 

He represented his grandfather in the New Jersev 
Society of the Cincinnati, and in 1835 delivered a very 



464 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

eloquent eulogy of La%ette, before that body. In 
1839 he delivered the address before the societies of 
Princeton College. These were both productions ex- 
hibitini'- a hioh order of talent. Had his health per- 
mitted him to remain at the bar, there can be no 
doubt that he would have ranked among our most 
respectable advocates. 

During my early professional life, when I attended 
the courts at Salem, that place was of more impor- 
tance than Bridgeton. The county was richer, and 
the business of all kinds better than that of Cumber- 
land. Lawyers from Trenton and Woodbury were 
constant in attendance, and well employed. But 
within the last quarter of a century, the County of 
Cumberland has gone ahead of Salem in professional 
and other business, and in population. The latter 
county, within my memory, had no lawyers who at- 
tained to much distinction. 

William N. Jeffers was too important a man in 
West Jersey, for many years, to be overlooked. He 
was born in the State of New York, and after being 
admitted to the bar in that State, as I imderstood from 
himself, Nvent to New Orleans, in the employ of John 
Jacob Astor. After a short stay there, he went to 
Cincinnati, and undertook to practice as a lawyer ; but 
soon became involved in some transaction which occa- 
sioned an indictment to be found against him in the 
criminal court there, for the forgery or falsification of 
a bond. He was, however, permitted to put in bail 
of a nominal character, and to leave without a trial. 

He came to New Jersey about the year 1813, and 
after a short residence in Mount Holly, where he se- 
cured the friendship and patronage of Judge Rossell, 



WILLIAM N. JEFFERS. 466 

who remained his warm friend as long as he lived, he 
was in 1814 examined and licensed as an attorney of" 
this State, and took up his residence in Salem, and in 
1817 he was admitted as a counselor. In 1831 he 
was called to the degree of Sergeant. He was never 
a well read lawyer, but had some remarkable char- 
acteristics. He was a very handsome man, and dis- 
tingaished for polite manners and a winning address. 
Soon he acquired a large and lucrative practice as a 
lawyer; and as an advocate before a court of common 
pleas or a jury, was a most formidable adversary ; and 
he had the faculty of always retaining his clients, who 
seemed never, even if w^orsted, to attribute blame to 
him. 

He soon engaged in politics, taking the democratic 
side. In 1827, and in several years afterwards, he was 
elected a member of the Assembly, and in 1829 was a 
candidate in the caucus of the Jackson members for 
the situation of governor, but did not succeed in ob- 
tainintr the nomination. He was also named for the 
senate of the United States, and at one time con- 
fidentlj' expected to succeed. Salem has always been 
a warmly contested county,, sometimes on the one 
side and sometimes on the other. Mr. Jeffers was one 
of the first who engaged personally in canvassing for 
votes, now so common as to occasion no surprise, then 
considered unbecoming. He was accused, too, of com- 
mencing the free use of money ; and it is certain that 
although he had warm personal friends, he contrived 
to excite equally violent opponents. He had much 
to do in the early management of the Salem Bank, 
originally chartered in connection with a steam flour 
mill, and in setting up a manufacturing company in 
the name and under the direction of a brother, being 

30 



466 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

accused of fraudulent transactions which occasioned a 
letjcislative investigation. 

In the early part of Jackson's administration, he was 
appointed minister to one of the South American re- 
publics, and got so for as Mobile on his way to the 
mission. But in the mean time some of those persons 
whose hostility he had provoked, procured a copy 
of the old indictment against him, and he was recalled 
before he left the countrj^ This occasioned him to 
renounce politics, and soon he removed to Camden, 
where he resided and was actively engaged in his 
profession, holding no other office but prosecutor of 
the plea^, until his death in 1853, at the age of about 
sixty-.five years. 

JosiAH Harrison was born in Essex County in the 
year 1776; graduated at Princeton in 1795; was li- 
censed as an attorney in 1800, and as a counselor in 
1803. After teaching a classical school for a few years 
at Deerfield, in Cumberland County, he settled as a 
lawyer in ?alem, where he married a lady of great 
respectability and worth. 

He was a man of small stature, and by no means 
strong in mind, but had a respectable business as a 
conveyancer and attorney. The most remarkable cir- 
cumstance in his life was his connection with the will 
of John Sinnickson, a citizen of Salem, who died 
w^ithout descendants, leaving a large property, consist>- 
ing principally of real estate, about the year 1815, 
whose will he drew and witnessed. The contest about 
this will lasted several years, was of a very exciting 
character, and divided the society of Salem into two 
very hostile parties, making breaches in very respect- 
able families which are hardlj^ healed to this day. The 



JOSIAH HARRISON. 467 

principal opponent of the will was Dr. Rowan, who 
married a niece. Mrs. Harrison was also a niece, and 
there were several other nephews and nieces. 

Probate of the will was refused by the orphans' 
court, and upon an appeal to Governor Maldon Dick- 
erson, as judge of the prerogative court, he altinned 
this decree. Besides Mr, Jeffers and Joseph M'llvaine, 
who were counsel adverse to the probate, and Charles 
Ewing and Richard Stockton, counsel for Harrison, 
Joseph R. Ingersoll and Alexander J. Dallas (father 
of vice-president George M. Dallas) were employed, 
and received large fees. The last case in which Mr, 
Dallas spoke was this, he having been taken ill in 
Trenton, and living only a short time after he roached 
his home in Philadelphia. 

Mr. Harrison then removed his residence to Phil- 
adelphia, and filed a bill in the circuit court of the 
United States for the establishment of the trusts in 
the will. An issue of will or no will being ordered, 
the case was brought on before Judge Washington 
and a very intelligent and select jury, who, after a 
protracted trial, rendered a verdict establishing the 
will. The case is reported in 3 Wash. C. C. R. p. 
580, Harrison vs. Rowan. The opinion of Judge 
Washington, especially in reference to the question 
of testamentary capacity, has been more quoted and 
relied on, even in England, than any other with which 
I am acquainted. A motion for a new trial being made, 
and argued by Ewing and Stockton for Harrison, and 
J. R. Ingersoll and Southard for Rowan, was decided 
in 1820^; 4 W. C. C. R. 32. Judge Washington de- 
clared himself perfectly satisfied with the verdict ; 
but as Judge Pennington, who sat with him, was not 
entirely satisfied, a new trial was ordered. The 



468 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

parties then compromised, and allowed a decree to be 
entered establishing the will, releases and other pa- 
pers being executed by the heirs and devisees. A 
life estate was thus settled on Dr. Rowan, who lived 
to extreme old age, and died only about two years 
.since. 

After this trial, Mr. Harrison, whose wife had in the 
mean time died, resided several years in Camden, and 
carried on business as a printer. During this time 
he was reporter of the supreme court. He removed 
to Salem, and died there in the year 1865, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-nine years. 

Alphonso L- Eakin was a lawyer in Salem about 
forty-five years, who was distinguished only as being 
one of the most careful and accurate attorneys in the 
State ; and who by steady industry, careful collection 
of costs, and the art of compounding interest, accu- 
mulated a large fortune. He died in 1867. 

Francis L. Macculloch was the son of George Mac- 
culloch, of Morristown, who was a Scotchman, and was 
born in 1801, before his parents arrived in America. 
He was licensed as an attorney in 1823, and in 1826 
as a counselor. He settled in Salem, and resided there 
till his death in 1859. He was a very fair lawyer, but 
confined his business almost entirely to the County of 
Salem,, and such cases originating there as required 
to be decided in the courts at Trenton. He was an 
efficient prosecutor of the pleas two or three terms, 
and was justly considered a safe and reliable counselor, 
and of undoubted integrity. His business was very 
respectable ; and besides affording him a handsome 
competence, enabled him to leave a sufficient support 



RICHARD P. THOMPSON. 469 

to an only daughter, who, however, did not survive 
him many years. 

Richard P. Thompson was born in Salem in the 
year 1805. He studied law with William N. JefFers, 
and was licensed as an attorney in 1825, and as a 
counselor in 1828. He resided in Salem until his 
death in 1859. 

Although never entitled to rank as a well instructed 
lawyer, Mr. Thompson was, within the sphere of his 
legal knowledge, a very adroit and respectable advo- 
cate. His expertness in the trial of causes and in the 
transaction of business was very great, and for several 
years his practice was large and lucrative. He pros- 
ecuted the pleas of the State for several years with 
great success. While holding this latter office, he was 
appointed by Governor Haines attorney-general of 
the State, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death 
of Attorney-general Molleson. When this tempo- 
rary office expired, he resumed the duties of prosecu- 
tor, and was met by a writ oi quo ivarranto sued out by 
the late Judge Clawson. The supreme court decided 
that by the acceptance of the office of attorney-gen- 
eral, the office of prosecutor was vacated, the tw(5 
offices being incompatible. Although as his counsel 
I was dissatisfied with this decision, on the ground 
that (admitting the two offices to be incompatible, it 
was the office of attorney-general that could not be 
legally held, it was not thought advisable to carry 
the case into the court of errors, Mr. Clawson having 
relinquished all claim to the fees received as pros- 
ecutor. 

In 1852 he was appointed by Governor Fort at- 
torney-general ; and being confirmed by the senate, 



470 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

lield the office the full term. He succeeded, too, in 
induchig the legislature, by the act passed in 1854, 
to place the office upon its present respectable foot- 
ingr, relievino; the attornev-e^eneral from the necessity 
of taking upon himself the ordinary prosecution of 
criminals, giving him a respectable salary, and extra 
compensation for his aid in all extraordinary cases. 

On the last day of the year 1852, he carried through 
the prosecution of Tread way for the murder of his 
wife in a manner that strikingly contrasts with many 
modern cases of this kind, and therefore deserves 
special mention. The case was well tried on both 
sides. The court of oyer and terminer of the County 
of Salem, for this trial, was opened at nine o'clock 
in the forenoon ; thirty witnesses were examined, the 
case was ably summed up on both sides, Mr. Mac- 
culloch being the counsel for the defendant; the jury 
retired at ten o'clock in the evening, and at eleven 
returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the 
first degree. The criminal afterwards confessed his 
guilt, and was executed. 

Althouirh the evidence was circumstantial, it was 
entirely satisfactory. The defendant, several days 
before he committed the crime, had been heard to 
threaten it ; he was shown to have had a gun, and 
to have purchased powder and buckshot in the morn- 
ino", the shot precisely of the kind extracted from 
the body of his victim ; he was shown to have been 
seen, late in the afternoon, with his gun in the neigh- 
borhood of the house where his wife was. She stood 
near a window, in the evening, employed at a table 
on which there was a lamp, w4ien she was shot through 
the window, several buckshot penetrating her body 
and heart, so that she ran into an adjoining room, fell 



RICHARD P. THOMPSON. 471 

down, und immediately died. The place where the 
person who shot her stood was easily determined, and 
upon being examined the next morning, a slight rain 
having fallen during the night, the paper wadding of 
the gun was found discolored, but whole, and this 
upon being pressed smooth, exactly fitted the torn 
part of a newspaper found in the criminal's pocket. 
The attorney-general had made himself fully ac- 
quainted with fdl the circumstances of the case, and 
had arrano-ed the evidence so that each witness testi- 
fied to the niaterial facts known to him, and nothing 
else. No case ever tried before me, during an expe- 
rience on the bench of fifteen years, was better con- 
ducted, or more satisfactory in the result. 

An action involving the title of a tract of land sit- 
uate in the County of Atlantic, was tried before me, 
which I take this opportunity of mentioning, because 
the value of genealogical inquiries was shown in a 
very remarkable manner. Mr. Robeson, now secre- 
tary of the navy, and Mr. Voorhees of Camden, were 
counsel for the plaintiff, and Mr. Bradley, now one of 
the justices of the supreme court of the United States, 
and Mr. Browning of Camden , were for the defendant. 
The case was contested with great zeal and ability on 
both sides, and lasted ten days, resulting in a verdict 
for the defendant. 

The plaintiff claimed under an original survey made 
by one Thomas Wanton in the year 1750. In support 
of his title a very handsome parchment deed was pro- 
duced, which purported to have been made by one 
Thomas Wanton in 1832, described as sole heir at law 
of the original Thomas Wanton deceased, and was cer- 
tified to have been acknowledged before a commis- 
sioner at Jersey City. The commissioner was dead, 
but it was admitted that his signature was genuine. 



472 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

This deed was attacked on behalf of the defendant 
as a forgery, or at any rate, executed by a fictitious 
])ersonage. A Mr. Gould, of Hudson County, New 
York, a gentleman of great intelligence and respect- 
ability, was produced, who testified that he was a de- 
scendant of the original Thomas Wanton, and having 
a daughter named Mary Wanton Gould, about to be 
married, he had without any knowledge of or refer- 
ence to the property in New Jersey, made a thorough 
investigation of the genealogy of the Wanton family, 
who were at one time quite distinguished in Rhode 
Island, where it appeared the original owner of the 
land lived at the time he had the survey made. He 
had been able very satisfactorily to trace every branch 
of the family down to the living descendants, and fully 
disclosed the sources of his information, thus provhig 
as completely as it seemed possible in any case to es- 
tablish a negative, that no such man as was described 
to be the maker of the deed of 1832 ever existed. 
His testimony was corroborated by another member 
of the same family, and the plaintiff being unable to 
produce the slightest evidence in support of the deed, 
the jury had no hesitation in rejecting it as spurious. 
Indeed it afterwards appeared that the plaintiff had 
been himself imposed on, having no suspicion of the 
o-enuineness of the deed until the disclosure of the 

o 

trial showed its true cfiaracter. 

Asa Whitehead, of Newark, was licensed as an attor- 
ney in 1818, as a counselor in 1821, and was one 
of those called to the degree of sergeant at law in 
1837, after which time this degree ceased to be con- 
ferred. He was the son of Silas Whitehead, who was 
appointed in 1817 clerk of the County of Essex, but 



ASA WHITEHEAD. 473 

who died the next year. The son was commis- 
sioned by the governor to fdl the vacancy, and at the 
meeting of the legislature in 1819 he was regularly 
appointed his successor. Being reappointed in 1824, 
he held this office ten years. Connected with the 
Pennington family by marriage, his politics were like 
theirs, democratic, until the contest between Adams 
and Jackson, after which he became a Whig, and con- 
tinued an active and influential supporter of that 
party as long as it existed. 

His office of clerk expiring in 1819, when the 
Jackson party were largely in the majority and polit- 
ical feeling was very strong, he foiled to be reelected 
at the moment, very much to -his regret. But I re- 
member hearing Chief Justice Ewing remark at the 
time that it would prove a great benefit to him, for 
the reason that although he did not seem himself to 
be aware of it, he had the ability to make a first class 
lawyer, and now he would be obliged to rely upon his 
profession. The opinion thus expressed proved to be 
entirely correct. It was not long before Mr. White- 
head took rank as a safe counselor and an able advo- 
cate, so that during the last twenty years of his life he 
stood, if not at the head of the profession in the 
northern part of the State, yet among those relied 
upon in all important cases. 

In the years 1833 and 1834 he was a member of 
the Assembly, and in the year 1848, after the adoption 
of the new constitution, he was chosen a member of 
the state senate for three years. Of unimpeached in- 
tegrity, and thoroughly imbued with the conservative 
spirit of the old school politicians, he exercised a salu- 
tary influence in legislation, and was active in pro- 
moting the success of the Whig party. He was the 



474 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

leading; member of the deleo-ates from this State to 
the Whig Convention of 1840, and united with them 
in voting for General Scott, as I have heard him say, 
without even consulting Mr. Southard, upon whom 
Mr. Clay laid the blame of their not voting for him, 
as he expected. Although he did not favor the selec- 
tion of General Harrison as the Whig candidate for the 
presidency, partly as I have reason to believe because 
he knew his physical and mental strength had begun 
to wane, he cordially supported him at the election, 
and aided materially in giving him the vote of this 
State. He died universally lamented in the spring of 
1860. 

Joseph W. Scott, who had long stood at the head of 
the list of counselors, but who had for many years 
ceased to appear among us at the bar of the court, 
ended his mortal career at the great age of nearly 
ninety-three years, as I was about to commit these 
reminiscences to the press. 

Colonel Scott, as he was usually called, deriving his 
title from an appointment years ago as one of the 
staff of the governor of this State, was a remarkable 
man. Although, perhaps in consequence of a certain 
instability of character, which caused him often to 
disappoint the expectations of his friends, he never 
attained to that distinction which his talents and 
acquirements seemed to promise, he was a learned 
lawyer and a brilliant advocate. During the last fif- 
teen or twenty years he has been but little known, 
except as president of the Society of the Cincinnati, 
at whose meetings and dinners on the Fourth of July, 
he never failed to appear, and where he continued 
to preside with a grace and dignity which were con- 



JOSEPH W. SCOTT. 47/) 

spiciioiis even in his extreme old age. The reverence 
with which he was accustomed to announce the 
never omitted toast, "To the memory of Washington," 
always received by the society standing and in si- 
lence, and the heartfelt eloquence with which year 
after year he was accustomed to introduce it, will not 
.soon be forgotten by those whose privilege it was to 
be associated with him on these occasions. He well 
remembered, and often told how, when a little boy, 
playing in front of his father's house, a gentleman 
called and asked him. 

" Is Dr. Scott at home ? " 

" No, sir ! " 

"Mrs Scott?" 

" Yes, sir ! " 

" Please go in and tell your mother that General 
Washintrton would like to see her." 

The boy, as he said, gazed at him eagerly, much 
impressed with the idea that he was only a man and 
much like other men of imposing presence ! 

He was the grandson of John Scott, who came to 
this country from Scotland at an early period, and was 
an elder in the old Neshaminy Presbyterian Church, 
in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His father, Dr. Moses 
Scott, removed from the paternal residence to New 
Brunswick before the War of the Revolution, and was 
in full practice there many years as a physician, living 
until near the age of eighty-three, lie was a rigid 
Scotch Presbyterian elder, and a most devoted Chris- 
tian, who trained his son, a great favorite, by religious 
precepts and a virtuous example, for duty and useful- 
ness, enjoining upon him, when he conmienced his 
profession, " My son, however busy, never turn a deaf 
ear to the widow and the orphan ; " and this injunc- 
tion was not foro-otten, if others were. 



476 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

Dr. Scott was in the battles at Princeton and 
Brandywine, and by virtue of a special act of Congress 
became the senior physician and surgeon of the gen- 
eral hospital in the middle district, and was long 
connected with and an intimate friend of General 
Washington. He was also a personal friend of Gen- 
eral Joseph Warren, after whom he named his eldest 
son. This son dying in infancy, he continued the 
name to his second son, the subject of this notice, 
who was born November 28th, 1778. 

After the usual preliminary education in the 
schools at the place of his birth and at Elizabethtown, 
he was sent to Princeton, and graduated there in 
1795, before he had attained the age of seventeen 
years. He was a student under the presidency of Dr. 
Witherspoon, and in 1868 attended the inauguration 
of Dr. M'Cosh, thus with his associate, Judge Herring, 
then the two oldest living graduates of Nassau Hall, 
the links between two distinguished men invited from 
Scotland to preside over this institution. On this oc- 
casion he received the honorary distinction of LL. D. 

For a short time he studied medicine with his 
father, and then entered upon a course of study in 
theology ; but soon he abandoned the design of being 
either a physician or a minister, and determined to 
become a lawyer. He studied law with General Fre- 
linghuysen, was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
1801, as a counselor in 1804, and was made a sergeant 
at law in 1816. He married soon after he was li- 
censed as a counselor, and settled in New Brunswick, 
and had a large practice. He was several times voted 
for as attorney -general of the State and as judge of 
the supreme court, but I think never held any office 
but that of presidential elector in 1824 (when he 



JOSEPH W. SCOTT. 477 

voted for General Jackson,) and prosecutor of the 
pleas of the State for the county of Middlesex. He 
was profoundly learned in the law, and apt at tracing 
principles to their source; had a wonderfully retentive 
memory, and was sometimes truly eloquent. The 
last time he appeared in court was as counsel for 
Donnelly (2 Dutch. 463), on his trial for murder in 
1857, when he was nearly eighty years old, and his 
argument against the validity of the indictment, which 
I heard, was creditable to his learning and ability, 
especially when it was remembered that he had prac- 
tically given up his profession nearly twenty years. 
It is stated by the Rev. Mr. Jewett, in the address 
delivered at his funeral, in May, 1871, I have no 
doubt correctly : — 

" He was an accomplished scholar, well versed in the Latin clas- 
sics, and accustomed frequently to correspond with his friends in 
the Latin language, even to the last year of his life. With the 
Westminster Catechism in Latin, as well as English, he was familiar ; 
to him it seemed the work of logical and master minds, the ablest 
uninspired work ever written. His Latin Bible was always by his 
side, his daily companion. He loved it ; in my pastoral visits with 
him it was almost always in his hand and ready for reading or refer- 
ence. He was a fine belles-lettres scholar, and had 'the pen of a 
ready writer.' He was well versed in English literature, and familiar 
with the old poets. 

" We stand to day by the side of one who looked upon and was 
familiar with the forms of generals, statesmen, and theologians, men 
whose names are sacred to America and the world. We stand by 
the coffin of one who served in the War of 1812 ; of one who stood 
by the bedside of the dying Hamilton (that brightest intellectual 
star in the galaxy of patriots) ; of one who heard, amongst divines, 
men great in the history of the American Church, — Witherspoon, 
Samuel Stanhope Smith, John M. Mason, Livingston, and Bishop 
Hobart. Not a few of the great men of the church and in the 
state were his warm personal friends. So attached to him was 
Dr. John M. Mason, that ' prince of preachers,' that, when shattered 



478 REMINISCENCES OF NEW JERSEY. 

in health and broken in intellect, he wandered away from home, 
his son came in search of him to this city, and found him at the 
residence of Colonel Scott." 

Joseph Warren Scott was received as a member of 
the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, as the rep- 
resentative of his father, Surgeon Moses Scott, in 
1825. In 1832 he was chosen assistant-treasurer of 
the general society, and in 1838 the treasurer-general. 
In 1840 he became the vice-president of the state so- 
ciety, and from 1844 until his death was the president. 

A letter from Hamilton Fish, president-general of 
of the Cincinnati, to Colonel Alexander Hamilton, 
upon receiving information of his death, notices very 
appropriately a conspicuous trait of Colonel Scott's 
character : — 

" Your telegram announces the death of one who, full of years, 
closes a life of much activity and marked ability. Genial and 
bright in intellect, fourscore and ten years had not, when last I met 
him, quenched the ardor of his warm and impulsive nature ; and I 
shall ever remember Colonel Warren Scott as one of the most at- 
tractive talkers and agreeable companions whom it has been my 
fortune to meet." 



Having now reached the close of these reminis- 
cences of a protracted life, I must be permitted to re- 
mind those who shall read them, whether they have 
only commenced the voyage of life buoyant with 
youthful hopes, or may be still absorbed by the en- 
grossing cares of active business, or have passed the 
meridian of their days, that several of those I have 
commemorated died even before they had attained 
the full maturity of their powers, while others were 
spared beyond the allotted three score years and ten ; 
and many of them 



CONCLUSION. 479 

'' Once trod the paths of glory, 
And sounded tlie depths and shoals of honor ; " 

but of each one, with only two exceptions, it has been 
recorded, He died ; and of every one whom I now ad- 
dress, it will be said at an unexpected hour. He has 
departed this life. 

" O listen, man ! 
A voice within us speaks the startling word, 
' JMan thou shalt never die ! ' Celestial voices, 
Hymn it round our souls ; according harps, 
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars 
Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality ; 
Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain. 
The tall dark mountains and the deep-toned seas, 
Join in this solemn universal song. 

" O listen ye, our spirits ; drink it in 
From all the air ! 'Tis in the gentle moonlight ; 
Is floating in day's setting glories ; Night, 
Wrapped in her sable robe, with silent step 
Comes to our bed, and breathes it in our ears ; 
Night and the dawn, bright day and thoughtful eve, 
All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse, 
As one great mystic instrument, are touched 
By an unseen living hand, and conscious chords 
Quiver with joy in this great jubilee ; 
The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth 
Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls 
To mingle in this heavenly harmony." 



APPENDIX. 



TITLES TO LAND. 

TITLES to land in New Jersey are derived from the English 
crown. It is a principle of law, recognized hy all the Eu- 
ropean governments, that an uninhabited country, or a country 
inhabited only by savages, of which possession is taken under the 
authority of an existing government, becomes the property of the 
nation taking the possession. According to the theory of the 
British constitution, all vacant lands are vested in the crown, as rep- 
resentuig the nation ; and the exclusive power to grant them resides 
in the sovereign, as a branch of the royal prerogative. The Indian 
title to the land in America was to some extent recognized, but the 
government, here and in England, has always asserted the exclusive 
right to extinguish that title, and to give a valid title to settlers by 
its own grant of the soil. 8 Wheat. R. 543. 

Individuals were forbidden to purchase land from the Indians, 
without the consent of the English proprietors, at an early date, 
both in East and West Jersey, and after the surrender of the gov- 
ernment to the crown. Deeds from Indian claimants are held by 
some of the present owners in both divisions of the State ; but 
unless patents or surveys were also obtained, the legal title to the 
premises rests upon possession, and not upon the deeds. The gen- 
eral proprietors were careful to purchase the land of the Indians, and 
except in those cases in East Jersey where grants were made sub- 
ject to an extinguishment of the Indian title, they reftised to allow 
grants or surveys until this was done. Every foot of the soil claimed 
by the original inhabitants of this State, has been obtained from 
them by a fair and voluntary purchase and transfer. 

Without going into a full detail of the several conveyances and 
releases contained at length in Learning and Spicer's " Grants and 
Concessions," commencing with the grant from King Charles II. to 
31 



482 APPENDIX. 

his brother, the Duke of York, in 1663, it may be stated that the 
title having been vested in Carteret, Penn, Lawry, Lucas, and 
Byllinge, these five persons executed what is known as the Quin- 
tipartite deed in 1676, whereby the eastern half of the province 
was conveyed in severalty to Carteret, and the western half to the 
other four. 

After the division. East Jersey was conveyed to twenty-four pro- 
prietors ; and West Jersey was sold in hundredths. Fenwick, to 
whom a conveyance had been made in trust for Byllinge, and who 
himself executed a long lease to Eldridge and Warner, was recog- 
nized as entitled to ten hundredths, and other persons became pro- 
prietors of ninety hundredths; so that a full proprietary right in 
East Jersey is a twenty-fourth part of that province, and in West 
Jersey, it is a hundredth part. 

The original grants were considered by the proprietors as convey- 
ing a right of government as well as the soil, and they instituted 
separate governments ; but in 1702 joined in surrendering that 
right to the crown. The title to the soil was not surrendered, and 
continues to be derived through the original proprietors, by regular 
descent or purchase, to the present day. 

Much difficulty was experienced in settling the division line, and 
indeed it cannot be said that the dispute is even now at an end. It 
was held in the case of Cornelius vs. Giberson, 1 Dutch. 1, that the 
line run in 1743, called Lawrence's line, running from the mouth of 
Little p]gg Harbor River to the River Delaware, at the latitude of 
41° 40\ is the true line. 

At the commencement of the settlement of P2ast Jersey, land 
was given to settlers, masters and servants, males and females, in 
designated quantities, according to the number of each, subject to 
an annual quit-rent, and the extinction of the Indian title. The 
lands thus granted were called " head lands," and included very 
considerable quantities, this being the usual tenure until 1 685, and, 
in some few cases, still later. A warrant, signed by the governor 
and major part of the council, was directed to the surveyor-general, 
who made his return of the survey, and both were recorded by 
the register. A patent was thereupon issued, under the great seal 
of the [)rovince, which was signed by the governor and council, and 
duly recorded. It would seem, also, that patents were issued by 
the governor and council to cover lands claimed under the Dutch 
government, and for other special reasons. 

Shortly after their purchase, several of the twenty-four pro- 



APPENDIX. 483 

prietors sold undivided shares of their several proprietaries to 
others, some of whom camo into the province. It then became 
necessary to provide for dividing the lands remaining in common, 
among themselves, in proportion to their rights. A written instru- 
ment was accordingly signed in 1 684, establishing a council of pro- 
prietors, which was sliglitly modified in 1725. This council con- 
sists of at least ten members, owning or holding proxies for eight 
full shares, each full proprietor having one vote, but no one more 
than twelve. It continues to meet at Perth Amboy, and has the 
general management of the proprietary interest, the appointing of 
dividends to the particular proi)rietors, the examination of the re- 
spective rights, and granting warrants of survey to their surveyor- 
general, thus appropriating to each owner his due quantity of acres. 

Patents continued to be issued until the surrender as before, ex- 
cept that in patents to proprietors no quit-rents were reserved. 
After the surrender of the government, whereby the governor 
ceased to be an officer of the proprietors, and they had no longer 
the control of the great seal, patents ceased. Such as were granted 
are on record in the books pertaining to the government of East 
Jersey, now in the secretary of state's office at Trenton, and also in 
the land office at Amboy. No patents were issued in West Jersey^ 

The first dividend to each full proprietor of East Jersey was of 
ten thousand acres ; persons holding shares or fractions of a share, 
or a conveyance from a shareholder or his grantees of a specified 
number of acres, having a right to locate such number of acres as 
they thought proper, not exceeding their due share of the dividend, 
wherever they could find land not before appropriated, and of such 
dimensions as interest or caprice might dictate. A register being 
kept of all titles to una])propriated land exhibited to procure a 
warrant of survey, it could thus be ascertained what land was sur- 
veved to claimants under each proprietary share. Additional divi- 
dends have from time to time been declared, amounting in all to 
fourteen, and covering in all (including the " pine dividends," which 
at first gave only a right to cut the timber, but a part of which 
was afterwards exchanged for rights to a full title) about six 
hundred and thirty-five thousand acres. To this number must be 
added fifty-four thousand acres in Sussex Cpunty, run out and al- 
loted to the proprietors. So that it would seem, that less than seven 
hundred thousand acres of land remained open to survey in East 
Jersey, after the council was formed. The unlocated land, at pres- 
ent, cannot be of much value, and probably exists only in small 



484 APPENDIX. 

parcels ; except, perhaps, in the territory so long in dispute between 
the two divisions of the ancient province. The register appointed by 
the council issued warrants of survey to those exhibiting a title to 
unlocated rights, and the land being surveyed by the surveyor- 
general or one of his deputies, the survey is certified to, inspected 
by the council, and ordered to be recorded. These records are pre- 
served in the office at Perth Amboy. 

In West Jersey, the proprietors, freeholders, and inhabitants 
established and signed certain concessions and agreements in 1 076, 
regulating the government and the mode of acquiring a title to the 
land. " Head lands " were to be granted to settlers, and commis- 
sioners were appointed to regulate the setting forth and dividing 
them. Afterwards commissioners were elected by the legislature. 
The quantity of land appropriated in this way does not appear to 
have been large. It was originally intended to run out the prov- 
ince into tenths, fronting on the Delaware ; but this was never fully 
carried out, counties having been established as soon as the conven- 
ience of the inhabitants required. Burlington appears to have in- 
cluded two of the original tenths, Gloucester one, and Salem one. 

In 1 G78 the proprietors resolved to constitute a proprietary council, 
to consist of representatives, elected yearly from among themselves, 
at first eleven, afterwards nine, five of whom were to be elected in 
Burlington and four in Gloucester, any five of whom are a quorum ; 
and so they continue to be elected. Salem tenth did not at first 
come into tliis regulation, Fenwick being ambitious to act as the 
sole lord proprietor ; but it was soon included, and, after his death, 
a proprietor residing therein was often elected in Gloucester. Ac- 
cording to an ancient usage, the origin of which is now unknown, 
the proprietor of a thirty-second part of a hundredth has the right 
of voting, and being elected. The owner of any specified number 
of acres, having no interest in the undivided remainder, has no right 
to vote. Many of the original proprietors never came into the prov- 
ince, and in consequence of the failure of heirs claiming rights, 
oidy about twenty persons are now known to be proprietors, some 
of whom own several hundredths, while others have only tlie thirty- 
second of a hundredth. They meet statedly at Burlington ; but as 
the unlocated property is of but little value, and the business, and 
consequent fees and perquisites, become less and less every year, it 
is probable that the time is not very distant when they will cease 
to act, and some new mode of preserving and authenticating their 
valuable records will have to be prescribed by law. 



APPENDIX. 485 

A dividend of each proprietor's share was first fixed at five thou- 
sand two hundred acres, but it was soon enhirged to twenty-five 
thousancr acres, of which Fenwick and his assignees were credited 
with ten shares. Six additional dividends have been made, assigning, 
in all, thirty-five thousand acres to each, the owner of a fractional 
part being, of course, entitled to his proportion. These dividends 
include much more land than is found within the limits of West 
Jersey ; but a large number have never been claimed, and it is not 
known who are entitled to them. The number of acres actually 
located cannot be ascertained. In many cases, the same lands have 
been covered by different surveys. 

After the right to head lands ceased (with the exception perhaps 
of a few cases of specified lots sold by some of the proprietors in 
Burlington city and elsewhere, which the council has left undis- 
turbed), titles in West Jersey are derived from some one of the 
original proprietors of the hundredths. Regular deeds of conveyance 
are made (formerly by lease and release, in modern times by 
deeds of bargain and sale) either of a fractional part, or of a speci- 
fied number of acres. A proprietor, or a grantee under him, iipon 
presenting his title to the council, obtains an order for a warrant, 
which is signed by the clerk and recorded, and which authorizes 
the surveyor-general or his deputy to survey a specified number of 
acres, from any of the unappropriated lands. By virtue of this war- 
rant, a deputy surveyor, who is a sworn officer, runs out a survey 
including any number of acres, not exceeding the number specified, 
as the owner chooses to have it, wherever it is supposed other sur- 
veys do not cover the ground. The deputy having returned his 
survey reciting the warrant and the deductions of the title, with a 
map, to the surveyor-general, he certifies it to the council, and being 
by them inspected and approved, it is ordered to be recorded. 

If other persons, claiming surveys before recorded, think their 
boundaries encroached upon, they are allowed to caveat against re- 
cording the new survey, and the council enters into an investigation 
of the matter, agreeably to their prescribed rules. Should they re- 
fuse to allow the survey, it fails. If they order it recorded, the 
question of interference is still open in the courts, who decide the 
questions involved, upon such principles of law as are applicable to 
other grants and conveyances. Substantially the same mode of pro- 
ceeding is adopted in East Jersey. 

During the early years of the settlement of West Jersey, there 
was much irregularity in the mode of making surveys. Fenwick 



486 APPENDIX. 

brought over his children and servants, with other settlers, to Salem, 
and undertook not only to grant manors and lands, but to establish 
a separate government. None of his grants for specific' tracts or 
parcels of land were recognized as valid, except the land and marsh 
laid out for Salem town (Learn. & Spi. 461). Grants by him and 
his executors, and by his assignees, of undivided rights, were re- 
ceived by the council, to the extent of his ten dividends, as a suffi- 
cient foundation for warrant of survey. Many of them were not 
presented to the council, and were not recorded in the office at Bur- 
lington ; but are found in a book called " Revel's Surveys," now in 
the secretary of state's office at Trenton, and appear to have been 
made under the direction of James Nevill, Fenwick's secretary, and 
afterwards agent of William Penn, a large proprietor in his own 
right, and as one of Fenwick's executors. Others are contained 
in a book in the secretary's office, called " Leed's Surveys." 

A rule was adopted at an early date, that surveys should not ex- 
tend to both sides of a navigable stream. The communication to 
different parts of the province was most easily made by water. Be- 
tween 1687 and 1700, surveyors seem to have been sent, by several 
of the proprietors, into the southern part of the State, and ran out 
(as the tradition is, by means of a mariner's compass, and often on 
horseback) large surveys of from five to twelve thousand acres each, 
on the most accessible rivers and creeks. They were often not re- 
corded ; but in some cases, maps were filed. Most of these tracts 
were afterwards regularly resurveyed and recorded ; but they seem 
to have been allowed to date from the original survey. One of 
these surveys for five thousand acres, lying on the Coliansey, called 
by the proprietor " Winchcomb Manor," after a manor of that name 
which he owned in England, was carried to London, retained 
there, and not recorded until 1764, when it was laid before the 
council, and they being satisfied, as the record states, that it had 
been made agreeably to the custom prevailing in the Salem tenth, 
approved it and ordered it recorded. Several lawsuits, as might 
be expected, grew out of this procedure, before and after the Revo- 
lution. 

An allowance of five acres in the hundred was made in West 
Jersey for highways, and in East Jersey of six ; which accounts for 
the fact that lands were so long taken in this State for roads, with- 
out compensation to the owner. For many years, the surveys 
called for fixed monuments, and the measurement of the lines being 
returned much shorter than they were, great frauds were perpe- 



APPENDIX. 487 

trated, by making the surveys to include more land than the number 
of acres specified. This led to orders, about 178G, requiring the 
surveyors to establish a beginning corner, and then to confine them- 
selves to strict course and distance. This remedied the abuse to 
some extent, but not entirely ; it being found, in many cases, that 
although no fixed corners were specified in the return, they were in 
fact mai-ked on the ground, and being respected by other surveyors 
and proprietors, they were, after a lapse of time, necessarily recog- 
nized by the council and the courts as established monuments, al- 
though a large overplus of land became thus included in the survey. 
An act of the legislature, passed in 1719, which provided for 
running the boundary line between East and West .Jersey, directed, 
that the surveyors-general of each division should hold a public 
office in Perth Amboy and in Burlington, where all surveys should 
be kept, and that all surveys should be recorded within a pre- 
scribed time in those offices, or be forever void. It is stated by Al- 
linson, in a note to this act (Allin. Acts, 31) that, " notwithstanding 
the extensive import of these words, it has been held that such 
surveys shall only be void and of none effect against such persons 
who, by reason of the non-record thereof, were ignorant of it ; and 
therefore no person, who knew of the survey, shall avail himself of 
of its not being recorded, such not coming within the mischief or 
remedy of the act." 

It must be understood, that a survey, duly recorded, does not 
properly speaking constitute the title of the owner, but is only 
evidence that he has severed a certain number of acres from the 
common stock, his title to which rests upon his deeds from the pro- 
prietors. 1 Halst. R. 63. Formerly, when it became necessary to 
prove the title, the regular chain of deeds, in some cases even from 
the king down to the claimant, were produced in evidence, as the 
only valid foundation for the survey. In process of time, the courts 
took judicial notice of the original grants, as matters of authentic 
history; and since the act of 1787 (Title Limitation, 3, Nix. Dig.) 
the record of a survey, duly inspected and recorded, is received as 
prima, facie evidence of a good title. Until the act of 1838, sur- 
veys were proved by producing a witness who could swear that 
he had compared the copy with the original record. 

For many years, the proprietors claimed to own the land covered 
by the water of navigable rivers and bays, and frequently made 
grants or authorized surveys, which extended to low-water mark, 
and in some cases further. It has, however, been finally settled 



488 APPENDIX. 

that the rule of the common law of England, which limited the 
title under grant to the ordinary high-water line, the shore below 
tliat line and the soil under the water belonging to the crown, or 
tlie state, is the law of New Jersey, and that consequently all titles 
under the proprietors extend only to the ordinary high-water mark, 
except in cases where the owner of the upland has reclaimed the 
land originally overflowed, by wharves or banks, and excepting all 
establislied shore fisheries, which are held to be private property. 
16 Peters R. 367. 3 Zab. G24:. 1 Dutch. 527. 5 Vroom. 

Owing to the fact that deeds were not commonly recorded until 
about the commencement of this century, and some are not now 
recorded, and that old deeds and muniments of title are seldom 
preserved for any great length of time in this State, our statutes of 
limitation must be regarded as a very important protection to titles. 
Without their aid, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain 
many titles which are now perfectly valid. Before the Revolution, 
there was no statute of limitations, barring a recovery of lands, rec- 
ognized by the judges of the province, who were in the interest of 
the proprietors, except the first section of 32 Hen. VIII., which 
required sixty years adverse possession to limit an action of eject- 
ment by the holders of a jjaper title. 2 Halst. 10. In 1787, this 
provision was reenacted, and an adverse possession of thirty years, 
under a deed or survey, was made a bar, which provisions are still 
in force. 

The act of 1799 went further. It was then enacted (Title Lim- 
itation, 16, 17, Nix. Digest) that no person shall enter into, or sue 
for lands, but within twenty years after his right or title shall ac- 
crue, provided that the time during which the person who had such 
right or title shall have been under the age of twenty-one, yewe 
covert, or insane, shall not be computed as part of the said twenty 
years. This act applies to the general projirietors as well as to 
others. 1 Dutch. 1. 

It has been always understood that the twenty years commence 
when the possession of the defendant, or of the person under whom 
he claims, first became adverse, as against the then owner, under 
whom tlie plaintiff claims. For a long time after this act was 
passed, it was supposed that the whole time during which the plain- 
tiff, or those under whom he claimed, happened to be under age, a 
married woman, or insane, between the beginning of the adverse 
possession and the commencement of the suit, was to be deducted 
from the time that had elapsed, so that some person of age, un- 



APPENDIX. 489 

married and sane, must have existed and been capable of entering 
on the land, under the plaintiff's title, for twenty years before the 
action was broujiht, to bring the case within the protection of this 
statute. 4 Wash. C. R. G91. But it was decided by our supreme 
court in 1836, that tlie twenty years are to be computed from the 
time when the plaintiff, or those under whom he claims, were first 
of age, unmarried, or sane, and that any subsequent disability is not 
to be deducted. Clark vs. Richards, 3 Green, 347. This decision, 
although the soundness of it has been, not without reason, much 
questioned, has now remained the rule of property more than twenty 
years, and was afterwards held to be not only of binding authority, but 
originally correct, by the circuit court of the United States. Rob- 
erts vs. Moore, 9 Amer. L. Reg. 25.* It may therefore probably be 
considered as the established law of the State, and in many cases 
the best security of titles originally good, the evidences of which 
have been lost. Public policy certainly requires that claims to land 
should be prosecuted within a reasonable time ; it being better that 
a title once good should be defeated by a delay of twenty years to 
prosecute it, than that titles should be rendered insecure by render- 
ing them liable to dispute between rival claimants for an unreason- 
able length of time. By the law, as it now stands, possession, as 
the owner for twenty years, confers a good title, except as against 
a person who, when the possession commenced, was an infant, a 
married woman, or insane, and when twenty years have not elapsed 
since such person was of age, unmarried, or sane. 

* See infra, p. 369. 



\ 



INDEX. 



Abolition Society, 123, 294. 
Adams, John Quiiicy, 218, 243, 331. 
Admiralty, courts of, 43. 
Alexander, James, 57. 
Alexander, AVilliam C, letter of. 192. 
Alexander, Kev. Dr. James W., 203, 

205, 227, 233, 332. 
Amboy, Perth, scat of jjovernment, 51. 
Andre", Major, 142, 160. 
Anecdote of Abraham Clark, 46. 

Governor Paterson, 95. 

Chief Justice Marshall, 
292. 

Samuel Leake, 404. 

President Taylor, 436. 

L. H. Stockton, 416. 
Armstrono;, Amzi, 257. 
Army of Kevolution, mutiny in, 161. 
Arnold vs. Mundy, case of, 308. 
Assembly of the Province, 5-7. 
Assij^nment law, drawn by Mr. Griffith, 

298. 
Attorney-general, 173, 469. 
Aylmer, name changed to Elmer, 341. 



B. 



Barclay, Robert, first governor, 2. 

Bayard, Colonel John, 307. 

Bigelow, Mr., speech of, 396. 

Bloomticld, Jcscph, Governor, life and 
character, 1 14. 

Boudinot, Elisha, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 279, 294. 

Boyd, Martha, 326. 

Brandy wine, battle of, how lost, 140. 

Brearly, l^avid. Judge, life and char- 
acter, 274. 

Bridgeton, alarm at in War of 1812, 
343. 

Bright, General, trial of, 286. 

Broad seal war, account of, 187, 242, 
257. 

Brown, George H., Judge, life and 
character, 401. 



Brougham, Lord, 423. 
Buchanan, James, 131. 
Burlington, scut of government, 52. 
Bnrnet, Dr. William, 237, 362. 
Butler, Benjamin F., 199. 



Caldwell, Rev. James, murder of, 272 
Camden ferry, charge of manslaughter 

against directors of, 357. 
Chancery, courts of, 10, 176. 
Chetwood, John, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 279. 
Chetwood, William, life and character, 

45S. 
Chetwood, John J., life and character, 

461. 
Cincinnati Society, 144, 474. 
Circuit courts, alterations, 314,376; 

judges required to alternate, 312. 
Clark, Abraham, 45, 46. 
Clerks of courts, apjjointment of, 14. 
Clergv, benefit of, 14. 
Clinton, l)e Witt, 151, 22.3. 
Collins, printer of" Gazette," 68. 
Committee of Satetv, 66. 
Congress, Continental, 22, 80, 97,299. 
Congress of Province of New Jersey, 

22, 27. 
Constitution of New Jersey, before the 
Revolution, 1-20 ; as adopted in 1776, 
21-49; of 1844, 370. 
Constitution of Unitd States, 37 ; part 
taken by Gov. Paterson in framing, 
83 ; how ratitied by New Jersey, 86 ; 
amendments of, 199. 
Cortield vs. Coryell, case of, 288. 
Cornbury, Lord, ordinance of, 8. 
Cornelius vs. Giberson, case of, 357. 
Council of New Jersey, 4. 
Courts, how first ins'titnted, 7, 8, II ; 

during Revolution, 79. 
Coxe, Richard S., 215; first reporter, 

278, 300. 
Crane, Joseph, 419. 



492 



INDEX. 



D. 



Davis, JcfFerson, 113. 

Dayton, William L., Judge, life and 
character, 372. 

Davtun, Aaron O., life and character, 
14S, 4G2. 

De Hart, John, 26.5, 272. 

Democratic p;trty, originally called 
KcjiuMican, 124,407 ; principles pro- 
fessed, 132, 42S; changes of, 189. 

Dicker?on, Mahlon, Governor, life and 
character, lOS, 21U, 221. 

Dicker>on, Philemon, Governor, life 
and character, 2.')4. 

Dickinson, Philemon, 69. 

Dod, Daniel, 154. 

Dodd, Am/.i, 397. 

Donnelly, trial of, for murder, 387. 

Draft law, op])<)sirion to, 196. 

Drake, George K., Judge, life and 
character, 317, •S21 ; oj^inion of, in 
Quaker case, 336. 

Duane, William, 169. 

Dudley, Thomas H., letter of, 395. 

Duponceau, Mr. 411. 



Eakin, Alphonso L., 468. 

Ecclesiastical disputes, effect of, 58. 

Eldon, Lord, 174. 

Election laws, 5. 6, 47, 245. 

Elmer, Daniel, Judge, life and charac- 
ter, 340. 

Elmer, Ebenezer, 105, 119, 120, 132. 

Elmer, Lucius Q. C, early politics, 
407; visits Gov. Bloomtield, in 1804, 
114; studies law, 342; licensed as 
attorney in 1815, 158; as counselor, 
1818, 301 ; elected member of the 
assembly, 1820, 162, 211 ; speaker in 
182.3, 310; district attorney, 1824, 
237 ; befriended by Stockton and 
Frelinghuysen, 409, 442 ; opposed to 
election of Jackson, 444 ; member of 
Congress, 1845, 380 ; attorney-gen- 
eral, 1850, 436 ; judge in 1852, 355, 
397 ; voted against Lincoln but sup- 
ported the war, 261. 

Elmer, Jonathan, 87, 416. 

Emmet, Thomas Addis, 154, 432. 

Errors, court of, 398. 

Ewing, Charles, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 326, 448. 

Ewing, James, 327. 

Ewing, Thonuis, 326. 

Ewing, William B., 171. 



F. 



Federalists, old, 124, 128, 129, 157, 
185, 407. 

Fenwick, John, 484. 

Fillmore, Millard, 384. 

Finky, Hev Kohert, 202. 

Fish, "Hamilton, 147, 478. 

Flint, Dr., name given to Governor Liv- 
ingston, 65. 

Foril, Gabriel H., Judge, life and char- 
acter, 313. 

Franklin, William, Governor, life and 
character, 50. 

Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 51. 

Franklin, William Temple, 55. 

Frelinghuysen, Theodore, life and 
character, 440. 



G. 



Genealogical researches, benefit of, 472. 
Gibbons, Thomas, 155, 303. 
Gibbons, William, 351. 
Gitford vs. Thorn, case of, 245, 418. 
Giles, James, 404. 
Goodrich, account of parties, 128. 
Government House in Trenton, 111. 
Green, Henrv W., 246, 367, 400. 
Greville, Fulke, 442. 
Griffith, William, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 293. 



H. 



Habeas corpus, writ of, 194. 

Hagley, plantation of Colonel Talia- 

terro, 204- 
Haines, Daniel, Governor, life and 

character, 256. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 71, 126, 153, 

157. 
Hamilton, James A., reminiscences, 

213. 
Hampton, James G., 406. 
Harrison, Josiah, life and character, 

466. 
PLirrison, William H., 219, 474. 
Harrow, Rebecca, 207. 
Holcombe, Dr. George, 216, 222. 
Honorary degrees, 182, 414. 
Hopkinson, Josepii, 91, 284. 
Hornblower, Joseph C, Judge, life and 

character, 3(.l. 
Howell, Kichard, Governor, life and 

character, 102. 



Independence, declaration of, 30, 61, 
119; states never absolute, 35. 



INDEX. 



493 



Indians, land all bought of, 481. 
Ingersoll, Cluirlcs J., 412. 
Inskccp, .Maria, 407. 
Institutio l('(jalis at Newark, 294, 313. 
lustruelioii of senators, 379. 



Jackson, Andrew, 225. 

Jackson party, 172, 180, 427. 

Jauncv, N\'ilii;\ni, will of, 246. 

Jeffers, William N., 186,464. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 12.5. 

Jersty Blue, song of. 111. 

Johnson, Antlrcw, 199. 

Judges, wore robes, 1.5; appointment 

of, 17, 33 ; opinions of, 363. 
Jurors, challenge of, law settled, 366. 



K. 



Kcan, John, 59. 

King, William R., 233. 

Kinney, Colonel John, 372. 

Kinsey, Jamo6, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 275. 

Kinsey. Ciiarlcs, 310. 

Kirkij'atriek, Andrew, Judge, compli- 
ment to Vroom, 185; life and char- 
acter, 301. 



Lafayette, Marquis de, 143. 

Land, titles of, 481. 

Laws not printed, 3 ; style of, 4 ; when 
void, 35. 

Lawvers, wore gowns, 15 ; duties of, 
448. 

Leake, Sanmel, 133, 327, 403. 

Learning and Spicer, Grants and Con- 
cessions, 1. 

Limitation, statutes of, 368, 488. 

Lincoln, xVliraliani, 388. 

Livingston, William, Governor, life 
and character, 56. 

Livingston, Brockholst, 75, 139. 

Livinuston and Fulton, steandioats, 
154, 207. 

Lyon, Matthew, trial of, 98. 



M. 

Macculloch, Francis L., 468. 
Madison, James, 135, 153. 
Marriage in court, 315. 
Martial law, 194. 
Ma.xwell, Colonel, 105, 106. 



McClellan, General, 198. 
McCo.-^h, liev. Dr., 476. 
McVVhortcr, Rev. Dr., 75. 
Mcndhain, Mr. Southard teaches at, 

204, 320. 
M'Kean, governor of Pennsylvania, 

170. 
Miller, William W., life and clmractcr, 

431. 
Miller, Jacob W., life and character, 

434. 
Morgan, Maurice, said to liave been a 

cook, 20. 
Morris, Robert, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 266. 
Monstier, Count dc, French Minister, 

46. 



N. 



Napoleon III., oiiinion of Dayton, 392. 

National Reiniblican ])arty, 181. 

Naturalized citi/ens, I'lglits of, 190. 

Nevius, James S., Judge, life and char- 
acter, 347. 

New Jersey, fortunate in her early gov- 
ernors, 75; ]jolities of, alwavs doubt- 
ful, 240. 

New York, controversy with, 152, 409. 

Niemsiwitz, Mrs., 59. 

Nixon, John T., 388, 



0. 



O'Connor, Cliarles, 247, 419. ,. 

Officers, how apiiointed, 7, 19, 33, 35. 

Otticers of Revolutionary army, 106. 

Ogden, Aaron Governor, liie and char- 
acter, 137. 

Ogden, Elias D. B., Judge, life and 
character, 351. 

Ogden IS. Gibbons, case of, 301. 

Olden, Governor Charles, 192. 

Olmstead case in Pennsylvania, 286. 

Opposition party, ini])ortance of, 195. 

Orphans' courts", 12, 242. 

Oyer and terminer, courts of, 13, 44, 
270. 



P. 



Parker, James, 152. 

Parker, Cortlandt, 250. 

Parkhurts, Jacob, against Colonel Og- 
den, 150. 

Patents for land in East Jersey, 483. 

Paterson, William, Governor, life and 
character, 77. 

Peace partv in 1812, 151 ; in 1861, 191, 
193. 



494 



INDEX. 



Penn, William, 2. 

Pennington, Epliniiin, 158. 

Pennington, Sv'illiam S., Governor, 
life and character, 133, 158. 

Pennington, Samuel, 162. 

Pennington, William, Governor, life 
and character, 237. 

Petigru, James L., 408. 

Petit, Charles, 19, 269. 

Philosophical Solitude, poem, 58 

Portraits in room of supreme court, 
182. 

Postmaster-general vs. Reeder, case of, 
167. 

Potts, Stacy G., Judge, life and char- 
acter, 353. 

Practice act, of Clark, 45 ; of Pater- 
son, 92. 

Prerogative court, 11, 241. 



Smith, Isaac, Judge, life and charac- 
ter, 271. 

Smith, Samuel Stanhope, 203. 

Southard, Samuel L., Governor, life 
and character, 154. 171, 201, 415. 

Spies, employed by Washington, 108. 

State sovereignty, 36-43. 

Statutes, English, rci.ealed and sup- 
plied bv Governor Paterson, 83-98. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 199. 

Stockton, Richard, life and character, 
302, 409. 

Stockton, Lucius H., 98, 208, 415. " 

Strawberry tea, 60. 

Supreme court, 13, 96, 282. 

Surrogates, 11. 

Surveys of land, 485. 

Symmes, John Clevcs, Judge, life and 
character, 206, 271. 



Q. 

Quaker case, 235, 334. 



R. 



Rahl, Colonel, 266. 

Religious disputes, effect of, 58. 

Republican party, 124, 132. 

Revision of the statutes, 88-94. 

Rittenhouse, David, 286. 

" Rivington's Gazette," 68. 

Rossell, William, Judge, life and char- 
acter, 46, 311. 

Rutherfurd, John, life and character, 
456. 

Ryerson, Thomas C, Judge, life and 
character, 319. 

Ryerson, Martin, 324, 399. 



Savigny, Professor, remark of, 330. 

Sax ton, Nathaniel, 183. 

Scott, Joseph W., life and character, 

474. 
Scott, Dr. Moses, 47. 
Scudder, Smith, 183. 
Secession of states, 38, 191-194. 
Seeley, Elias P., Governor, life and 

character, 233. 
Sergeant at law, 16, 254. 
Serjeant, John, 169. 
Sewanl, William H., 390. 
Sheriffs, 15, 18. 
Skinner, Cortlandt, 115, 117. 
Skinner, Stephen, 60, 276. 



T. 



Taliaferro, Colonel John, 204, 306. 

Taliaferro, James Monroe, 205. 

Tea, burning of, at Greenwich, 102. 

Tender acts, disapproved by Livings- 
ton, 71. 

Thomp.son, Richard P., attorney-gen- 
eral, 469. 

Thom])Son, Smith, 216. 

Tilghman, William, 170. 

Titles to land, 481. 

Townships, how established, 19. 

Trenton, lawyers at, 182. 

Tucker, Samuel, Judge, 265. 



V. 



Van Arsdale, Elias, 177. 
Veto of governor, 41. 
Virginia, manners of people, 205. 
Voters, 5, 47. 

Vroom, Peter D., Governor, life and 
character, 180, 184, 373. 



W. 

Wall, Garret D., life and character, 

419. 
War of 1812, 135. 
Washington, General, 71, 106, 160, 

475. 
Washington, Btishrod, Judge, life and 

character, 281. 
Webster, Daniel, 217. 
West Jersey, 2, 5; titles to land in, 

484. 



INDEX. 



495 



Whclplcy, Edward W., Judge, life and 

character, .396. 
Wliig party, 247. 
Wliitehcad, Ira C, Judge, life and 

character, 349. 
Whitehead, Asa, 472. 
White, John Moore, Judge, life and 

character, 337. 
Williamson, Isaac H., Governor, life 

and character, 173. 



Williamson, Matthias, 173. 
Wilson, James, 281. 
Wilson, James J., 211. 
Wirt, William, 206. 
Witherspoon, Rev. Dr., 305, 477. 
Wood, George, 177, 247, 290, 417. 
Woodbury, Levi, 378. 
Woodruff, A. I')., Attorney-general, 
121. 



